Forgetting the Past
by Lulala
Summary: Wakka and Tidus are kidnapped, but by whom and for what purpose? As Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and Paine search Spira to find out, there could be a much more sinister force at work, boasting power which the girls can't even begin to imagine...
1. Chapter 1

As the sun rose on the Island of Besaid, Rikku stirred, pulling the covers over her head in one violent swoop. This was the problem with Besaid—those huts had basically _no _protection against the sun in the morning. Paine, laying on the bed across the room, was having a similar problem. Oh, well—they took what they could get. When you're offered a free hut on the same island as your friends were on, it wasn't hard to accept, despite the lack of cover from the sun.

Paine peered across the room at her blonde friend. "You awake, Rikku?"

Rikku's eyes snapped open. "What do you think!"

"We have to fix this," Paine said, sounding annoyed. "I can't deal with it."

"Let's just throw a giant blanket over the hut and be done with it," Rikku moaned, throwing back her covers and rolling out of bed.

"It would get hot," Paine said. "Duh, Rikku."

Rikku moaned again. "I can't stand it! It doesn't help that the sun is up so early every morning, either!"

Paine cringed. Thought she hated to agree with Rikku, she couldn't help it. Though she didn't know anybody who slept as much as Rikku, she had to agree that it was a little outrageous.

Rikku seemed to draw conclusions from her silence. "Admit it, you agree."

Paine cringed again. "Fine. I wonder if Yuna is up."

Rikku walked over to their small cook stove, and quickly lit it. "I don't know," she replied. "Want your eggs scrambled or in omelet form?"

Paine quickly strode over to the stove, and guided Rikku out of the way. "You sit, _I'll_ cook."

"Aww, I've only burned them once!" Rikku protested.

"Way more than once," Paine corrected.

"What did Brother call about last night?" Rikku asked, running a hand through her shiny blonde hair.

"You don't remember?"

"Of course not," Rikku said in a shrugging tone. "I was sleeping, and you woke me up. Why would I remember anything?"

"Oh, I don't know," Paine replied sarcastically. "He thinks there's another important sphere that we missed around here somewhere."

"I thought we weren't sphere hunters anymore," Rikku said.

"We'll always be sphere hunters," Paine told her. "Do you think you could ever stop?"

Rikku thought about this. "No," she confessed. "I think Yunie is done, though."

"All because of that blonde guy?" Paine asked, eyebrow arched. "I doubt it."

"He's been back for two weeks, and she hasn't hardly left his side," Rikku said. "We can't bring him along. Either we replace Yunie or go without her."

"I vote go without," Paine said. "Otherwise we might end up with Shinra—or worse, Brother."

The piece of cloth which covered the door to their hut flapped open, and Yuna ducked into the hut.

"Morning," she said with a yawn. "Brother called me last night."

"Us too," Paine replied, cracking the eggs into the pan. "He says Buddy found some new sphere waves around here somewhere.

"Really?" Yuna asked in disbelief. "I thought we'd gotten all of them from around here!"

"Apparently not," Paine replied. "It just must be someplace much more secluded and harder to find," she said knowledgeably. "I mean, didn't Shinra just upgrade the machine that searches for sphere waves?"

"Yeah," Rikku answered. "It's like, wayyy more powerful now, and can probably sense sphere waves that are way fainter than before."

"Fainter sphere waves," Paine repeated. "I think maybe that's it."

"Probably," Yuna said in agreement. "I just don't get why they're making us look for spheres on our break."

"Break?" Rikku replied. "I thought you had quit!"

"I couldn't desert you guys," Yuna replied. "I just wanted to take a little break."

Lulu poked her head into the hut. "Anybody else want to go to Luca? Tidus, Wakka, and I are leaving with Brother on the airship right now, so if you want to go, you better hurry." She turned and walked towards where Tidus and Wakka were waiting without another word.

"Going?" Paine asked Rikku.

"Chuh, no," Rikku replied, stretching out her thin frame to its full length. "I'm too tired."

"Besides, I think we should work on this sphere stuff while they're gone," Yuna said.

"I suppose," Rikku said, yawning widely.

Before long, they heard the airship flying off, and knew that Lulu, Tidus, and Wakka were off for a day in Luca, while they were stuck in Besaid looking for a sphere. Great. Just great.

Lulu tired of leading Tidus and Wakka around Luca rather quickly. It was like they were girls or something! They had to stop and look at absolutely positively everything! Lulu patted herself on the back for only going to one store and picking up the stuff for Vidina that she needed, and tried hard not to think of the teenage girl that she had left to watch him. Tidus and Wakka, however, couldn't seem to remember where they were going, since they ended up many places that you wouldn't expect to find guys marveling at the merchandise. For example, a jewelry cart, or a fancy, up-scale shoe store, containing mostly women's shoes.

"Can't we just keep moving?" Lulu practically pleaded as Tidus and Wakka attempted to drag her into a blitzball related store.

"No, because this is what we actually came for," Wakka told her. Lulu sighed as the pushed the door open and entered the shop.

"I'll just wait out here," she called after them. She turned around and walked to a nearby bench. She flopped down, and sighed again. "I will never go shopping with them again," she promised to herself. The warm sun felt wonderful on her face, as she looked up towards the deep blue sky. Shutting her eyes, she took it all in. This sure wasn't Besaid, but it was nice, all the same. You wouldn't hear the noise of bustling people, or of hundreds of different conversations all going on at once in Besaid. Those noises were reserved for more urban areas, which is probably why Lulu found it strangely calming.

As much as she was enjoying just sitting there and taking everything in, she couldn't help noticing after awhile that they had been in there for a long time. She didn't mind that they were taking awhile to pick out what they wanted, but after a bit longer, it became completely ridiculous to Lulu. She stood up with a sigh, and slowly began walking towards the blitzball store.

Grimacing, she pushed the door open, and stepped inside. She expected to see walls covered with blitzball garb, but found the store to be… well… a complete and total wreck. And that was being nice.

Lulu surveyed the scene—someone had obviously been looking for something. It was completely torn apart. Blitzballs covered the floor, along with special blitzball apparel strewn all over the store. Every other sort of blitzball accessory that you could possibly think of, this store probably had, and it was probably thrown somewhere about the room. It was the biggest mess Lulu had ever seen, and, having little Vidina around, she had seen quite a few messes.

"Wakka, Tidus!" she called, picking her way around the completely trashed store.

"Y-Yes?" she heard a timid voice call from behind the checkout counter.

Lulu spun around, and saw a short, frail looking old man standing there, looking terrified.

"Sir, what happened here?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he said. "One minute, I'm in the back, getting out the new blitzball goggles, and the next, I hear the store getting ripped apart!"

"My friends were in here," Lulu said. "One's blonde, one's got sticking up orange hair, both are obsessed with blitzball."

"Yes, they were in here," the man affirmed. "Talking to the lady that trashed my shop."

"Did you see the lady?" Lulu asked.

"No, but I heard them talking to her just before I heard the shop start to be ripped apart. When I came out from the back, they were crouching down in the middle of the room, trying to avoid being hit."

Lulu's eyes widened. "Are they okay?"

"I don't know," the man answered. "After everything stopped flying around, both had been mostly knocked out from being hit so many times. I saw a lady in a long, black cloak wave her arms at them, and then…"

"Yes?" Lulu asked anxiously.

"They disappeared."


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, hello! I told you I'd be back with my second fic, and here I am! I didn't want to spoil the first chapter by putting all this stuff in it, so here it is!

"Forgetting the Past", by Lulala

Characters: Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Paine, Tidus, Wakka, and other assorted people. Those are the main ones, though.

Rating: T, just to be safe.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own anything from Final Fantasy X-2. Think of every singlething in the game. That's how much I don't own.

"People do _not _just disappear," Lulu said immediately. "Not unless they're unsent, or ghosts, or something like that."

"I'm just telling you what I saw," the old man said.

"What happened to the lady?" Lulu demanded.

"I didn't see her face, though I'm pretty sure those two were what she was here for, because she disappeared almost right after they did."

"No," Lulu said quietly, trying to stop herself from shaking. "No." She began tearing apart the already destroyed store in search of Wakka and Tidus. "This is a horrible, immature trick!" she shouted as she dug through the blitzball supplies that littered the ground. Whatever was left standing, she knocked over. There was no way—_no way_—that the Vidina's father and Yuna's boyfriend, who had just reappeared, could have randomly disappeared in the middle of a blitzball shop. Lulu would not stand for it.

Before long, she had torn apart everything there was left to tear apart, and there was no sign of Wakka or Tidus anywhere in the store. The old man meekly offered to let her search the back room, as long as she promised not to rip it apart. Lulu promised, and the man led her back there.

Lulu ran frantically around, searching every possible place where a grown man could fit or hide. No matter where she looked, there wasn't a trace of either of them. Lulu walked back out into the store, and collapsed onto her knees. She couldn't believe it—they were really gone! The minute the store manager had told her, she had suspected some trick—it would have been an all-out trick, sure, but she wouldn't have put it past Tidus and Wakka. This was clearly no trick—Tidus and Wakka were gone, and it was up to her to find them.

Back on Besaid, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had begun searching the vast woods rather extensively. As they fought their way through the thick vines and path full of branches and other things that were continually tripping Rikku, they began to feel hopeless.

"This one doesn't want to be found," Yuna said, chewing her fingernail once they had all sat down to rest. Generally, they walked in silence, but that was out of habit. They didn't want to be discovered by any of the wrong sorts of people, if any should have happened to be lurking around. Talking to each other only made them easier to find.

"You're right," Paine agreed. "Are we sure there was even one here?"

"Besaid has enormous forests," Rikku suddenly said. "I mean, who knew?"

Paine looked over at Yuna, and then rolled her eyes. "We've been walking for hours."

"I know," Yuna said. "Why, oh why, did we have to start in the morning?"

Paine shrugged. "I don't know. It was your idea."

"Don't blame Yuna," Rikku said, sticking up for her cousin. "Let's just keep looking."

"So _now_ you wanna look," Paine mumbled under her breath.

Before long, the girls had all agreed to call Brother and see if they could get a more exact place of where the sphere was. As Rikku had said, the forest was rather large, and it would be difficult to locate a tennis ball sized sphere in all of that.

Rikku was voted to be the one to do it, since Brother wouldn't talk to Paine, and he'd be too busy fawning over Yuna. She turned on her radio, and timidly said into it, "Umm, Brother?"

It crackled. "Yes, Rikku?"

"Could you give us… oh, I don't know… a more exact position on this sphere?" Rikku requested. She had been instructed not to piss Brother off, since he might not help them if she did. He had a bad habit of doing that.

"Talk to Buddy," Brother instructed.

"Rikku, hey," Buddy's voice came not long after. "So, you need a little help finding the sphere, eh?"

"If there even is one," Paine mumbled.

"Let's see," he said thoughtfully, as Rikku heard typing in the back round. "I think I can turn this radio into a device that can detect the sphere waves," he told her. "If I do this right, it will start beeping when you get close to the sphere."

"Great!" Rikku said happily. "That will make our lives a million times easier."

"Done," Buddy said. "Having this new sphere wave system is so great. Just leave the radio on, and call us when you've found it."

"This will make it so much easier," Yuna said gleefully.

"I wish they had upgraded sooner," Paine grumbled. "It would have saved us a lot of headaches."

The three girls kept walking along the semi-beaten path that they had found, waiting eargly to hear any sort of beep come from the radio at all. They were all tired, and wanted to just get this over with.

Not half an hour later, the radio let out the faintest of beeps. Rikku, who had been carrying it, jumped several feet off the ground. "What was that!" she asked skittishly.

Paine laughed. "The radio, Rikku. We must be getting close."

Rikku slowly walked forward. Before long, another slightly louder beep. As Rikku kept moving forward, the beeps got louder and more frequent. When they were moving extremely quickly and were ear-splittingly loud, Rikku stopped.

"Is this where? Because I don't think it could get much fast—ER!" Rikku had been interrupted mid-word by the very ground she was standing on collapsing in on her.

"Rikku!" Paine and Yuna yelled, as Rikku disappeared from sight. When the dust that had risen from the ground had settled, Paine and Yuna began craning their necks as they turned their heads every which way in frantic search for Rikku. Before long, their eyes rested on what was right in front of them—a colossal hole, right in the middle of the path. And there was Rikku, lying at the bottom, completely motionless.

Sorry! I'm very mean when it comes to cliffhangers. I think you'll find that out pretty quickly XD Anyway, if you like it, make sure to review! If you don't, review also, and tell me what I could change to make it better. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Hiya, everyone! It's been a little while since I've updated, and I wanted to get a new chapter up. I'm going to be dragged off to some ridiculous cabin from June 29th to July 5th, and I promise I'll have a new chapter up the day I come back! A BIG thank you to everyone who reviewed (**Motet **and **Yunie19**, you know who you are!) It makes me feel suuuper happy to know anyone is even reading this at all! Enjoy, everyone!

"RIKKU!" Yuna screamed, almost ready to flat out jump in the hole to save her cousin.

Paine restrained her. "Don't jump," she advised. "We have to climb down."

Yuna didn't seem to be listening to Paine at all. A tear ran down her cheek as she stood staring at Rikku's motionless form. "Anything it takes," she said quietly after a long moment.

"Do you even see what's at the bottom of that hole?" Paine asked. "Besides Rikku, I mean."

"No," Yuna said, wiping her eyes.

"A tunnel," Paine told her, pulling out a garment grid. "With a Berserker dressphere, I think we can use the claws to climb down."

"We have all sorts of other obscure dresspheres… you'd think there'd be a mountain climber one somewhere," Yuna grumbled, reluctantly donning the dressphere.

As the two girls began to climb down, Rikku stirred. She sat up after a moment, holding her head. "Owie…" she mumbled to herself. Noticing Paine and Yuna scaling down the wall, she said, "What are you guys even doing?"

Yuna almost jumped at the sound of Rikku's voice, but that would have caused her to fall, so she restrained herself. "Rikku!" she yelled, not able to turn around to face her cousin. "Are you hurt?"

"Now that you mention it… what happened? And where are we?" she asked, rubbing her head and wincing when she found the bump from her fall.

"You fell into a hole," Paine said. "Gave Yuna a heart attack. And here we are, scaling down into the hole to save you."

Rikku giggled. "Thank you."

"Don't try to get up," Yuna said, just as Rikku was about to stand up. "Wait till we get there."

Rikku didn't feel like she could get up at that point—her head was pounding, and her back was stabbing with pain. She had a perpetual dizzy feeling, and couldn't hardly keep her eyes open for more than a minute or two. She took a moment to glance around at her surroundings. Paine was right—Rikku had fallen into a hole. It was one of the deepest holes she had ever seen, though it wasn't very big. It was just large enough in diameter for her to lay down at the flat bottom. She noticed a tunnel dug into one of the walls of the hole, as well. She supposed that was probably their next destination. With a sigh, she shut her eyes, and began to breathe deeply. If only Yuna and Paine would hurry up!

It seemed like an eternity before her friends finally reached the bottom of the hole. Both quickly changed out of their dressphere, and hurried over to where Rikku lay.

"Are you okay?" Yuna asked worriedly, getting on her knees next to Rikku.

Paine's face was completely without concern. "She'll be fine, Yuna!"

Rikku groaned. "Sure I will, but at the moment, I don't think I can walk."

Yuna wasted no time donning the White Mage dressphere. "Let's see if this will help you at all." She healed Rikku with her most powerful spell, and before long, she was helping Rikku up off the ground, with a bit of help from Paine.

Rikku dusted herself off—it was amazing how dusty someone could become from falling however many odd feet she fell. She still felt soreness in her back and legs, and her headache was still there, but she figured those things would be around no matter what type of curing spell she used. She wouldn't pretend that she wasn't upset that there wasn't a spell to cure headaches, of course.

"Where are we headin'?" Rikku asked, rubbing her neck with her hand as she spun around, getting a better look at the hole.

"That way," Paine said, pointing at the tunnel.

Rikku grimaced. "I had a feeling you'd say that."

With Paine in the lead, the three girls started walking down the tunnel.

"This is scary," Rikku said, voice quivering.

"I know," Yuna said, clinging to Rikku's arm.

Paine whirled around to face Yuna and Rikku. "We've been scarier places before. Let's just try to get through this _without _any whines or tears or anything like that, okay?"

Yuna and Rikku nodded, and the three continued walking.

"I wonder where we even are," Paine mumbled to nobody in particular. "I mean… Rikku falls into a random hole in the middle of a forest, and now we're walking down a random tunnel…"

"I wonder too, Paine," Yuna said. "I mean, wouldn't you think that someone would have fallen down this already?"

"Not if it's new," Paine said. "Judging by the hardness of the dirt when we climbed down, I'd have to say it's definitely not new."

"You're right," Yuna agreed. "I mean, it was like rock!"

"Some soil is just like that, but I'm doubting that it's like that here in Besaid," Paine replied.

"If this hole is that old, why hasn't anybody else fallen in?" Rikku asked.

"Maybe someone else did," Paine said. "But maybe they didn't come back."

Rikku whimpered.

"Or maybe they just came out somewhere totally different, and didn't go back to Besaid," Yuna offered for Rikku's sake.

"You'd think they would have sent us out looking for them," Paine grumbled.

"What if it was thousands of years ago?" Yuna said.

"I suppose it could be…" Paine said. She couldn't really deny that it would have had to have been a while ago. After all, the ground was so hard where they were walking that their shoes were clicking like they would on stone.

"But the question is… where does it go?" Rikku said.

"If we don't go back… Lulu, Tidus, and Wakka will come looking for us, right?" Yuna asked.

Paine raised an eyebrow. "What in the world are both of you so scared for? We're going to go back, there's just no getting around it."

Yuna looked over at Rikku, who covered her mouth to prevent herself from whimpering. It was a good question, though… why _were _they so scared?

After a couple more minutes of walking, Paine, who had pulled slightly ahead of Yuna and Rikku, came to a screeching halt. Yuna and Rikku, who had been whispering to each other about where this mysterious tunnel may lead crashed into her, she had stopped so abruptly.

"Why'd you stop, Paine?" Rikku whined. "I mean, I'll bet we're getting—"

"We're here," Paine replied, pointing straight ahead of her.

In front of them was an enormous cavern. All around, much like you might see in a horror movie, were skeletons. They covered the ground, causing Yuna to cover her eyes and groan, while Paine wrinkled up her nose and began picking through them towards the center of the room. In the center of the room stood a small pedestal. On the pedestal sat a sphere.

So, very good, very bad? You gotta let me know! Please review, folks!

Much love,

Lulala


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, so I sort of lied... I decided to update before I left, since I had this one done, and the day I came back, since I have that one pretty much done, too :) Anyways, THANK YOU SO MUCH to the people who reviewed:

**DarkAnimePriestess: **LOVE THE REVIEW! (Teehee)

**Paine3: **I kept my promise and then some! Enjoy, thank you for reviewing!

**Motet: **Thank you sooo much for reviewing (again), and I'll admit I was a little disappointed with the lack of reviews, and my other story that's finished has this one beat by a mile, and this one will be much longer. We'll see come chapter 8, I guess. Oh, well, I'm gonna finish this anyway, and hope that another bright idea comes along:)

In front of them was an enormous cavern. All around, much like you might see in a horror movie, were skeletons. They covered the ground, causing Yuna to cover her eyes and groan, while Paine wrinkled up her nose and began picking through them towards the center of the room. In the center of the room stood a small pedestal. On the pedestal sat a sphere.

Rikku reached over and latched on to Yuna's arm. Yuna looked over at her. "We have to, Rikku," she said softly. "We can't leave Paine to do it all alone."

"Human skeletons? Yeah, not part of the job description," Rikku said, unable to tear her eyes away from the bones.

Yuna grabbed Rikku's wrist and dragged her into the cavern. "We didn't have a job description," Yuna reminded her, a trace of teasing in her voice.

Seeing Paine walking through them alone tugged at her heart until… "Fine," Rikku finally agreed. She and Yuna rushed to catch up with Paine, who was carefully stepping around all of the human remains.

"Hey Rikku, why isn't the radio going off?" Yuna asked.

Rikku noticed that it wasn't in her hand anymore. She checked all of her pockets, and didn't find it anywhere. "It must have broke when I fell, since I couldn't hear it, and I don't have it."

"Is it just me, or is there something odd about that sphere?" Paine wondered aloud.

"It's not just you," Rikku replied, looking at the sphere and biting her thumbnail in thought. "It's not really the same color—more of a faint orange, really."

"Something _is _off," Yuna finally said, squinting at the sphere.

"Speaking of which… I kinda hate being curious at times like this, but… why the hell is this place completely covered with skeletons?" Rikku asked.

"You actually _want _to know?" Paine replied in surprise.

"Well… no, I mean, yes, but, no," Rikku sputtered.

Paine stopped. Rikku hadn't realized that they had made their way all the way to the center of the cavern. Paine, who was in front, reached out and hurriedly grabbed the sphere off of the pedestal.

"What, no huge monster that we never noticed to come engage us in an epic battle over the sphere like normal?" Paine said sarcastically.

Despite their situation, Rikku laughed at Paine's obvious joke. The fact that Paine never joked made it that much more funny.

Just as they were about to leave, as Paine had been expecting, four gigantic spider-like monsters jumped down from the ceiling. Rikku screamed as they began rushing straight for the three girls standing there at the center of the room!

Rikku didn't take long to study them—she was too busy running for her life! She led the other two girls out of the cavern as fast as her feet could carry her.

"You had to say it, didn't you?" Yuna huffed at Paine as they ran back down the tunnel.

Paine rolled her eyes. "I thought we were getting away with it, for once," she argued.

The girls continued to run. Rikku chanced a look over her shoulder to see if the monsters were even following them. Sure enough, they were, and gaining on them at that.

"Better hurry!" Rikku told Yuna and Paine breathlessly. "They're gaining on us!"

"Put on your Berserker dresspheres," Paine told them. "We're going to have to scale the wall to get out!"

"Paine, there's no way we can beat these things," Yuna said. "They're like spiders! They could out-climb us any day!"

"I guess we're going to have to fight them, then," Paine said, drawing her sword.

When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, chests heaving, they finally turned around to face their attackers. The four gigantic spider-like creatures wasted no time attacking the three girls.

Yuna pulled out her two guns, and began shooting. She shot three of the legs off of the first one, before running under it and shooting at its underside. It almost fell on her, it died so quickly. As it crashed down, it scraped across her back, leaving three long, straight cuts. When it hit the ground, it dissolved into pyreflies.

She went to help Rikku, who had also went for the 'chop off the legs' strategy, who had removed all but two. Yuna shot at what seemed to be its head. Paine had already finished taking down two of them, and hurried over to finish the last one off with Rikku and Yuna. She ran under it, stabbed her sword right into its underside, and came out unscathed. The monster fell, and turned into pyreflies.

"Yuna, you're hurt!" Rikku said, noticing the three gashes on Yuna's back.

"I'm fine," Yuna said, panting heavily. She was still tired out from the long run down the tunnel.

"That was surprisingly easy," Paine commented.

"Disgusting!" Rikku said, wiping off some green goop that had splattered onto her during the fight. "Wait—when did I get covered in this!"

"Let's just get out of here before more come," Yuna said, pulling out a garment grid and hurriedly changing into the Berserker dressphere.

Rikku and Paine followed suit, and soon, all three girls were scaling up the wall rapidly. It was the fastest any of them had ever climbed anything. Despite the fact that the spiders fell easily, that didn't change the gross-out factor—they didn't want to fight any more of them.

When they were at last pulling themselves up out of the hole, all three were heaving sighs of relief.

"I finally feel safe again," Rikku said, not bothering to change out of her dressphere.

As she and Yuna began dancing around with happiness (they had, after all, just outwitted completely disgusting monsters and found the sphere they had spent hours searching for), they noticed Paine, who had frozen up completely.

"What's wrong, Paine?" Yuna called.

"The sphere. It's turned completely gray."

Well? Good, bad, I want to know either way! Leave me lovely reviews :)

Thank you,

Lulala


	5. Chapter 5

I am sooo back from the evil cabin of doom! I'm a little late with this update, sorry! I tried so hard to keep writing, but I got a little bit stuck, so I had to take a break. I mean, I know where I'm going with this fic--it's just getting there that will be the issue XD Anyways, I wanted to kick out a good update, so I decided to take a bit more time on it to make sure it was good. Even still, I'm not sure, but... anyway, THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH to all those who reviewed!

**DarkAnimePriestess:** Thank you for reviewing (again), and I will most definitely keep posting : )

**Seymour Guado:** Don't worry--there will be some Vidina! Thanks for the review!

**FinalFantasyFangirl:**I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

**Paine3: **YES, Paine cracking jokes IS a sign of the apocolypse! Haha, just kidding--I love writing Paine, she's so fun XD

**Motet: **AH, thank you (AGAIN!) for reviewing, and I'm suuuuper happy that you likey!

"Random thought—if the radio broke when Rikku fell, then how are we going to call Brother?" Yuna asked.

"I guess we'll just have to walk back, and call them from the village," Paine said.

Rikku and Yuna simultaneously let out loud groans.

"We've walked so much today!" Rikku whined.

"Besides, we don't even know where we are!" Yuna pointed out.

Paine didn't look up at them—she just continued examining the sphere. "I know it," she said. "This damn sphere won't play! This is what you should be worried about, not the stupid radio!"

"Maybe the color has something to do with it," Rikku suggested. "I mean, it might just be so old and deteriorated that it just won't work."

"All of that had better not have been for nothing," Paine growled, poking the sphere.

"Maybe Shinra can fix it," Rikku offered. "I mean, if it's deteriorated, he might be able to—"

"He better be able to," Paine said in a voice that almost sounded like a snarl.

"Should we start walking back?" Rikku asked.

"I guess," Paine answered, handing the sphere to Yuna, who carefully placed it in one of her pockets.

As they carefully made their way back through the forest (Rikku was avoiding any dips in the ground obsessively, drawing a scowl from Paine), Lulu was still in Luca, not quite sure what she should do.

"Thank you, sir," she said to the shop owner weakly. "I guess I'll have to go look for them, then."

"Where will you start?" the man wondered aloud.

Lulu thought about this. "I'll have to talk to my three friends who are sphere hunters. They know all the secrets about every single area here in Spira, and I'm sure we'll be able to find them." She sounded much more certain than she felt. Deep down, she was worried that Wakka and Tidus were gone. _Don't think about that_, she told herself. They couldn't be gone—she knew they could take care of themselves, they wouldn't just—no, it wouldn't happen that way! Not if Lulu could help it. She was going to find Vidina's father if it was the last thing she ever did.

She thanked the man again, and walked out of his shop. She looked around the crowded square for a clock. When she at last spotted one, she let out an enormous sigh. Brother wouldn't be coming back for her for at least another hour and a half! For a fleeting moment, she had thoughts about hitching a ride back to Besaid with someone else that was leaving around now, but stopped herself. Brother would be coming back soon, and she'd just have to wait until he did.

It was mid-afternoon before Yuna, Rikku, and Paine made it back to the village. When they returned, they found that Lulu, Wakka, and Tidus hadn't come back from Luca yet. They marched into Rikku and Paine's hut, and radioed the Celsius.

"Brother!" Paine barked into the radio.

"Yes, Paine?" Buddy answered. "It's Buddy."

"We found the sphere," she announced, an angry edge on her voice. "It's a dud."

"We think Shinra can fix it," Yuna said, snatching the radio from Paine. "It turned gray after we got it out of that horrible cavern, but Rikku thinks it might have just deteriorated."

"Excellent," Buddy said. "We'll come have a look once we've picked Wakka, Lulu, and Tidus up, which we're on our way to do."

For what seemed like a long while, Paine, Yuna, and Rikku just waited. They were too exhausted to do anything, not to mention that none of them felt like doing anything other than sleeping.

When they finally were called by Buddy, all three of them seemed rather slow getting out of the hut. Sphere hunters or not, running around in a hidden cavern and fighting your way through a woods for the better part of the day was hard on their bodies.

"I think I need someone to carry me," Rikku groaned, rubbing the back of her head, which was still bursting with pain from her fall.

"Don't look at me," Paine said. "You're walking fine, anyway."

"My head just hurts," Rikku said, sounding whiney.

"We'll get you some ice when we go back," Yuna said kindly with a glance at Paine.

When at last they reached the outskirts of the village where Buddy had told them they had landed, they found Lulu in complete hysterics, while Brother and Shinra tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, we will find them," Brother was saying.

Lulu looked somewhere between extremely angry and horribly upset. She looked almost close to tears, though her facial expression mirrored the look she would give Wakka when he was doing something she didn't approve of.

"What's wrong, Lulu?" Yuna asked with concern.

"Oh, Yuna, it's awful!" Lulu began. She retold the entire story of what happened in Luca—everything from the moment Wakka and Tidus had set foot into the blitzball store to right before Brother and Buddy had come to pick her up. By the end of her story, tears were slowly pouring down Yuna's face.

"So he's gone again," Yuna said quietly, hurriedly wiping the tears from her face, looking as though she was hoping none of the other girls had seen them. "Why?"

"I don't know," Lulu answered. "But I guess we're going to find out, right?"

"Well, of course we'll have to look for them," Paine said, her usually expressionless face nearly contorted with concern. Somehow, seeing two of her friends so distressed seemed to have softened her attitude.

"We'll find them!" Rikku said optimistically. "I know it! With the Gullwings on the case, there'll be no hiding them from us!"

Good or bad, I like to know, so drop me a review, please! Plus, if you review, you get a cookie from me :D

Love, Lulala


	6. Chapter 6

AHHHH, hii! It's totally been a week since I updated... :ashamed: Okay, well, here I am, and this is a bit longer than usual, and I'll try to keep the updates coming muuuch faster than this! A big GIGANTIC thank you to all who reviewed! Cookies all around! 

**Paine3: **:gives cookie to Paine3: Hehehe... I agree with you, though--I love Lulu and Paine, too. Rikku's pretty cool, though, too. Thanks for chucking a review my way, and enjoy your cookie :D

**Motet: **Aha, I _shall _continue! Thanks for the review :D

**slamlam: **Glad you likey, keep reading and reviewing!

**DarkAnimePriestess: **AHH, sorry I took so long...but the fact that you want a new chapter makes me feel happy! Thanks for reading/reviewing!

...ooo...

Minutes later, they were all crowded around Shinra's computer on the airship in hopes of viewing the sphere that Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had found.

After several moments of tension filled silence, Shinra let out a sigh. "Not possible right now," he said at last. "It needs to be enhanced a couple hundred times over, at least. It's almost completely deteriorated, though it's not that old."

"Hmm," Paine said thoughtfully. "That's strange."

"Tell me about it," Shinra said, examining the diagrams that were popping up on his computer. "Well, it will take awhile, but with the new upgrades we have to the system, it will go much faster than it would have if we had found it a month or so ago."

"So, when do you think we'll be able to watch it?" Lulu asked anxiously.

"I'm just a kid," Shinra replied, standing up and walking back towards the elevator.

"Excuse me?" Lulu made a move to follow him, but Rikku put an arm out to stop her.

"What he means when he says, 'I'm just a kid', is that he doesn't know," Rikku told her. "He's been saying that since the Gullwings were formed."

Lulu's brow furrowed. "What a strange child."

"Tell us about it," Rikku said.

"So Brother, where are we off to first?" Yuna wanted to know. "To find Wakka and Tidus, I mean."

"Well, since we have no clues at all, I guess we should start in Besaid," he said uncertainly, peering over at Buddy.

Buddy nodded in approval. "Try the secret cave first, then the temple, and if we need, we'll search the woods, too."

Rikku, Yuna, and Paine all groaned at the word 'woods'. Rikku in particular had no desire to fall at least fifty feet down another hole, run into some giant spiders, and get spider guts all over herself from kicking their asses again.

"Secret cave it is," Lulu murmured, picking up her moogle and leading the way off of the airship. Since Brother and Buddy had landed on the outskirts of town, the secret cave was considerably closer than it would have been if they had left from the village. They started down the path, Paine leading the way, with Rikku, as usual, bringing up the rear.

"You've never been out on a Gullwings adventure, have you?" Yuna asked Lulu.

"No… but when we get done with this, I have to go back to the village and get Vidina," Lulu said. "Miku has been watching him all day, and I owe her some money. Do you think anybody would be able to watch him if I brought him on the airship?"

"Sure," Yuna replied easily. "Calli is still on the airship from before. I'm sure she'd be happy to watch him."

"How long has she been on the airship?" Lulu asked.

"Since almost the beginning of our stint as Gullwings," Rikku answered. "She wants to be one, I guess, and Yuna's been training her. The only problem is that she's crazy for chocobos…"

"I've wanted to chuck her off at Clasko's ranch and call it a day for awhile," Paine said, sounding completely serious.

Rikku giggled. "Paine, you wouldn't." Paine only smirked, and didn't reply.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way to the cave. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement. Lulu had shaken herself up by talking about Vidina, and didn't want to think about anything to do with Wakka at the moment. It was horrible that he was gone, but thinking about it made it even worse. If she had just gone in that store with them, maybe she could have… no, then she would probably be gone, too, and Vidina would have nobody.

When they at last reached the cave, Yuna pulled out her guns and took the lead. They walked slowly, groping their way through the dark, before Rikku tripped over a good sized stick, and Lulu lit it with a fire spell. Yuna carried it around like a torch, and moving around the cave became much easier.

Before long, they ran into a couple fiends—two wolves and a lizard. Paine slashed at one wolf, Yuna and Rikku took the other one, which left Lulu with the lizard.

"Burn," she said through gritted teeth, casting a well placed fire spell that eliminated the lizard in one hit. It dissolved into pyreflies, and Lulu let out a breath of relief. She hadn't lost it—not quite yet. She smiled in satisfaction, and rushed over to help Paine dispose of the wolf that had sunk its teeth into her arm, causing her to drop her sword. Lulu hit it with a water spell, and Paine picked up her sword and pushed it right into the monster's heart. Within moments, it was gone. Rikku and Yuna finished assaulting the wolf, which promptly died the second Yuna shot at its head, and they continued on through the cave.

Paine had drawn attention to herself unintentionally by holding her forearm where the wolf had bitten her.

"I'll take care of that," Yuna said, once they had finally persuaded Paine to show them what had happened. She quietly cast a healing spell, and the wound disappeared. Paine looked enormously grateful, and mumbled her thanks. Lulu had picked up the torch that Yuna had dropped at the beginning of the battle, which was still lit, and resumed carrying it.

They thoroughly searched the whole cave, but found no trace of Tidus and Wakka. The only thing they found at all, in fact, other than the stick, was several batches of fiends, which they disposed of with no other casualties.

When they at last emerged from the cave, none of them were feeling particularly discouraged just yet. They had a feeling that they wouldn't be finding anything on Besaid from the beginning, but didn't want to overlook anything. They hurried back to the village in silence.

Lulu made straight for her and Wakka's hut, where Miku would still be with Vidina. She was walking so fast that Rikku began complaining. Lulu burst through the door, and saw Miku calmly playing with Vidina, looking as though she was not phased at all that Lulu was at least an hour late.

"Hi, Lulu," Miku said brightly. "How was your time in Luca?"

Miku was a short brown haired teenager, with bright blue eyes and freckles scattered across her nose. She had generally been a good babysitter for Vidina, and Lulu was certain that her baby son enjoyed Miku's company. Vidina had already begun to speak in small, detached sentences, and Miku always tried to teach him to say her name, and tried to teach him the names of all of his toys.

Lulu tried to hide a flinch at the mention of her time in Luca. "It was fine, Miku, thank you for asking." She fished some gil out of her bag, and handed it to Miku. "Thank you very much for your help."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Miku assured her. "Give me a call if you need me again."

Miku left the hut to walk home, and Lulu picked up Vidina and pulled him into a hug.

"Vidina, we're going to go on a little trip," Lulu told him, setting him down in his crib and hurrying around to pack a bag of things he'd need. "I promise we'll have lots of fun."

"Daddy," Vidina gurgled.

"Daddy," Lulu repeated, voice sounding hollow. "He's… well… we'll see."

"Where daddy?" Vidina wanted to know.

"He's… okay, Vidina, mommy doesn't know, but she promises she'll find him."

Vidina didn't seem to register what she was saying—if he could shrug his shoulders, he probably would have, because he stared at her for a moment before picking up the toy truck that was next to him and started playing with it.

Rikku walked over to where Vidina was laying, and looked down at him, leaning casually on the crib. "Hi, Vidina."

"Rigu," he said with a squeal of delight. He wasn't quite able to make a 'k' sound yet, so 'Rikku' came out as 'Rigu'.

"Yeah, that's right," Rikku said. "Aren't you excited? You get to come on a trip with Yuna, Paine, and me."

Vidina nodded, still playing with his toy truck.

Lulu finished packing Vidina's things, while Rikku and Yuna played with Vidina, who was giggling uncontrollably.

"How bout you and Yunie head back to the airship and get stuff set up for Vidina while Paine and I check the temple real fast?" Rikku suggested to Lulu.

Lulu was reluctant to agree, since she felt searching for Wakka and Tidus was mostly her responsibility. Then again, she didn't want to leave Vidina in the care of anyone else, so she agreed. Rikku and Paine set off for the temple, and she and Yuna left their hut for the airship.

...ooo...

Well, if you like it, you gotta let me know! Reviews make my day, and besides, this time you get a cupcake! I make a pretty mean cupcake, if I do say so myself XD

Thank so all soooooo much,

Lulala


	7. Chapter 7

Hiya, everyone! I'm back with a new chapter comin' your way! An ENORMOUS thank you to all of my faithful reviewers--I feel soooooooooo happy when I read your reviews and you tell me that you like it :D Cupcakes all around!

**Motet: **I agree--I had a lot of fun writing the Vidina part. And I will _definitely _be continuing this--I've got it planned out in my head, and I have to do this whole thing justice, otherwise it will just sit there in my brain forever, and I'll feel bad XD Thanks for reviewing, yet again!

**DarkAnimePriestess: **Ahh, I'm very glad you think so! Thanks again!

**Paine3:** Yeah, it was a little hard to picture Lulu as a mother at all for me XD Super glad you thought it was cute, though:chocolate cupcake for you:

**slamlam:** Ah, how this makes me happy :D

...ooo...

Once aboard the airship, which was still on the ground outside of the village, Lulu and Yuna had a brief conversation with Shinra about the sphere, which was still too poor in picture quality to see anything except for static. The audio was indistinguishable—the person speaking in the sphere could have been anyone. Yuna grudgingly lead the way back to the cabin, mumbling something as she walked that sounded distinctly like 'upgrade, my foot'.

The two girls stepped into the elevator, and Yuna pointed out the buttons for Lulu, explaining that whatever the button said was where the elevator would take you—fairly self-explanatory. Yuna pressed the button marked 'Cabin', and waited as the elevator slowly whirred into motion. When the doors swished open, Yuna led the way down the hallway and into the cabin.

As Yuna and Lulu stepped through the door, Barkeep and Calli both stopped whatever they were doing to see which Gullwing was entering the room. Calli looked excited to see someone other than Brother, Buddy, or Shinra, who were most often the only Gullwings to visit the cabin.

"Hiya, Yuna!" she called. "What have you been up to all day? I went and looked for you in the village, but couldn't find you."

"I'm fine, Calli," Yuna said, smiling kindly. "We were very busy with a mission today. By the way, this is my friend Lulu, and her son Vidina."

"Pleased to meet you," Calli said politely. Lulu smiled at her.

Vidina made a gurgling noise, and Calli giggled. "What a cute baby!" she cooed.

"Thank you," Lulu said. Vidina made another noise, and Lulu said with a laugh, "I think he appreciates the compliment."

Vidina squealed with laughter.

"Speaking of which, Lulu has decided to do some work with the Gullwings for awhile, only she needs someone to take care of Vidina while we're on missions—do you think you could manage that?" Yuna asked Calli.

Calli remained silent for a moment, watching the ceiling as though she were deep in thought. "Yeah, I think I can do that," Calli said.

Lulu seemed slightly more relaxed. "Great! Thank you very much, Calli." Calli showed Lulu to the upper level of the cabin, where Lulu put out all of Vidina's things so that Calli could find them easily. She considered going back to the village to grab Vidina's crib, which she had completely forgotten that she would need. It wouldn't be safe to have Vidina sleeping in a normal bed just yet. Yuna agreed to go back to the village with Lulu, and the two set off again, leaving Vidina in Calli's care for the very first time.

…ooo…

As Rikku and Paine neared the temple, Paine was grumbling something to herself that was completely indistinguishable to Rikku.

"Whatcha talkin' about?" Rikku questioned, eyes swimming with curiosity, as always.

"Nothing," Paine replied quietly. "Did you grab another radio when we went back to the airship, or did you forget?"

"I have it," Rikku said, producing it from one of the pouches on her belt.

Paine didn't respond to this in any way—she kept her expressionless face fixed on the ground ahead of her as they entered the temple.

"Soo…" Rikku said, trailing off awkwardly. "Chamber of the Fayth first, d'you think?"

"That's pretty much the only place we've got to search here," Paine said, annoyance flaring up.

"Geez," Rikku mumbled. "No need to go all pissed-warrior-chick on me."

Paine's eyes narrowed and her fists clenched till her knuckles where white, but she didn't reply.

"What's got you all worked up all the sudden, anyway?" Rikku pestered. "I mean, you were fine a minute ago—"

"I know I was fine a minute ago," Paine snapped. "Maybe I'm just angry that we're checking here, because it seems like we'd know if they were here—it would be hard to get them into the temple without someone noticing."

Rikku's face scrunched up in thought. "Hmm, you're right!"

"About this pissed-warrior-chick thing… minus ten respect points for childish insults," Paine said, half smiling.

"Awwww!" Rikku whined. "I can't believe you're still keeping track! How many have I got left?"

"Rikku, last time you asked, you had thirty five, so if you do the math…"

"Twenty five? You gotta be kidding me!" Rikku moaned. "And see, how do you do that? You switch moods so fast—it's hard to keep up!"

"It depends on what I'm talking about," Paine said as they walked down the stairs in the Cloister of Trials, getting closer to the Chamber of the Fayth with every step they took.

"It's like a friggin' chameleon—how can you do that?" Rikku asked, childish whining tone resurfacing.

Paine's facial expression dissolved into a soft smile. "You eventually learn to change with what pleases you and what makes you angry, instead of being annoyingly upbeat all the time," she said, a pointed look at Rikku.

"Oh, shut up," Rikku said snappishly. "I _like _being happy all the time."

Though for the most part, the Cloisters underneath all the temples had been wiped clean of fiends, they did run into one, which Rikku spun her blades threateningly at, and, looking to take out a little bit of anger on it, bolted after it when it tried to run. She eventually cornered it and disposed of it, much to the entertainment of Paine. What could she say—Rikku was an entertaining person to watch fail at things, and there was more than one time during that chase that Paine was certain Rikku would need her help for getting rid of one fiend.

The chase had speeded up their progression through the Cloister, and they were at last upon the Chamber of the Fayth. Just as Paine had predicted, the room was completely empty. They did a thorough search, knowing that Lulu and Yuna would absolutely throttle them if they didn't, and hurried out of the temple. When they were just about to leave, Rikku stopped to look at all the statues that were around in the enormous entrance area. She was amazed that she had never noticed them before, and, intrigued, walked slowly around the room, reading each inscription in the bottom of the statue.

"Hey, Paine, Yunie never told me her pops had a statue of him here!" Rikku said in amazement, reading the inscription describing Braska's victory over Sin.

"Are you honestly that dense?" Paine replied.

Rikku ignored her, and kept walking. Suddenly, she stopped at a statue of a very familiar looking woman. Rikku thought hard in an attempt to remember where she had seen this woman before, but had no recollection of ever meeting her. Then… why did her face look so familiar?

Rikku ran her fingers over the inscription, which read:

_In memory of the Lady Ginnem, _

_Once a great Summoner._

Paine grew impatient with Rikku as she stood, staring at the statue of Lady Ginnem, wracking her brains for anything that might have reminded her of where she knew this woman from. Paine at last grabbed Rikku by the elbow and half dragged her out of the temple, leaving Rikku to wonder.

...ooo...

If _you _know where Rikku knows Lady Ginnem from, SHHH! Don't tell--it just puts you at an advantage :D Anyways, if you likey, make sure you drop me a review, cuz I gotta know whether people are actually reading this! Sure, the hit counters are counting every time someone views the page, now, but does it mean you're actually reading... XD Just kidding, just kidding. Do drop me a review, though!

Thanks again,

Lulala


	8. Chapter 8

I'm back, with a new chapter special for youuuu! Extra long chappie, since I couldn't find anywhere to cut it off. In this chapter, we have the debut of an original character, created by moi, of course. When I'm done writing her main purpose, I'll let you vote whether to toss her or keep her. No voting until her original purpose is over, please, even if you hate her XD BIG thanks to all who reviewed... let's break it down:

**Paine3: **Tch tch, naughty naughty! Haha, just kidding. But don't tell anyone else! P.S., I'm SUPER glad you want me to update! Thank you soo much!

**7w7: **Ah, I'm so very glad to hear it! Thank ya kindly for reading and reviewing!

**Motet: **Haha, I was caught up in reading that book for a little while, too--I'm on my second time, now, because I liked it so much that I had to read it again. Good but sad, in my opinion. Anyway, thanks for the review!

...ooo...

"Lady Ginnem, Lady Ginnem," Rikku muttered to herself as she and Paine walked briskly back towards the airship. "Ever heard of a Lady Ginnem, Paine?"

"No," Paine said. "Why do you want to know?"

"I dunno, it's just—" Rikku yawned widely "—she looked so familiar."

"It could just look like someone you know," Paine suggested. "It might not actually be Lady Ginnem that you knew."

Rikku considered this thoughtfully. "Hmm, you're right."

Before long, darkness was closing in on the island of Besaid, and Rikku was suddenly made painfully aware of how tired she was. It seemed hard to believe that all on that day she had fallen down a fifty foot hole, killed gigantic spiders, searched the entire secret cave _and _the Temple, and was now hurrying back to the airship. Her nice, soft bed that she knew was waiting for her in the cabin seemed to be calling out to her. Her eyes drooped a bit, but she trudged on. When at last they were back aboard the airship, Rikku made straight for the cabin without another word to anybody.

...ooo...

The next morning, Rikku was being shaken awake by Yuna, who was insisting that they get an early start today, as they were going to search Luca, nearly the largest city in Spira.

"What a day today is going to be," she said, yawning widely as she checked her braids to make sure they were all in order. "And we thought all that stuff yesterday was rough."

"But we're searching the scene of the crime, so it's important to be on the look out for any sort of clues," Lulu reminded her.

"Yeah, I know," Rikku replied. "But… imagine how much ground we have to cover today!"

After eating a hurried breakfast, the four girls departed for downtown Luca. It was the morning rush time, and the girls were getting thrown every which way on the streets by the immense crowds. When they at last got to a less crowded street, Rikku proceeded to have a complete collision with a small, red-headed girl.

Her wavy red hair was pulled into pigtails, and she was a bit on the shorter side. She wore a green tank top with a black skirt over a pair of black legging-ish capri pants. She had a dark brown belt with many pouches on, countless bracelets on her wrists, and several necklaces and chokers. She had a pair of black flat ballerina-esque shoes, and there was a pearl ankle bracelet on her slender left ankle.

"Watch where you're goin'!" Rikku said angrily, dusting herself off.

"Me? You were the one that totally caused that," the girl argued.

"Nuh uh! You were walking down the middle of the sidewalk—"

"Aw, just forget it," the girl said bitterly, and she started to walk away in the opposite direction.

"Hey, I'm not done with you, pipsqueak!" Rikku yelled after her.

The girl froze. Wheeling around slowly, she said in a low rumble, "Who are you calling PIPSQUEAK!"

"I said I wasn't done with you, so you better stop walking, shorty," Rikku said authoritatively.

"THAT'S IT!" the girl bellowed, seemingly irked by the references to her height. "NOW, YOU'RE GONNA GET IT!" She glared piercingly at Rikku, and snapped her fingers on her right hand. 

For a moment, Rikku considered laughing, because whatever the girl had tried to do, it seemingly hadn't worked. Then, Rikku noticed a single, solitary braid, slowly being consumed by a small flame. Rikku shrieked.

"Put it out, put it out!" she screeched at Lulu.

Lulu effortlessly cast a water spell, which left Rikku completely drenched, but put the small fire out nonetheless.

"Who the heck do you think you are?" Rikku demanded.

"My name's Aya, and I'm a mage," she said, anger still evident.

"Mage?" Rikku repeated. "How could a kid like you be a mage?"

"By learning, of course," Aya said. It seemed she was cooling off, since she had quit glaring at Rikku and was now looking at the group of four, hands on her hips incredulously. "Who're you?"

"I'm Rikku, this here's Paine, that's Lulu, and this is High Summoner Yuna—"

Aya looked a bit apologetic when Rikku mentioned her name. "I'm sorry, Lady Summoner, for having disturbed your travels—"

"Don't be silly," Yuna said. "Call me Yuna, none of this Lady Summoner business. Rikku, don't you think you owe her an apology?"

Rikku glared at Yuna. Making sure that Yuna understood that this wasn't the last she'd be hearing about this, she grumbled, "Sorry. For, you know, knocking you over."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry! I knocked you over _and _started your hair on fire!"

"It's fine," Rikku mumbled, fingering the half-burnt braid.

"It was a good spell, though," Lulu said.

Aya watched her reproachfully. "You're a black mage, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Lulu told her. "What type of a mage are you?"

"I know both types of magic, and then some," Aya said, an edge of pride in her voice.

"Amazing," Lulu murmured.

"Yeah, it's pretty rare to master both," Aya said, still watching them carefully. "It's in my blood, though. My mother was the same way, and she taught me everything I know."

"I used to know a very bright mage," Lulu said. "She would occasionally teach me things. It was in her blood, too."

Aya looked a bit more relaxed. "So, what are you all in Luca for?"

"We've lost some friends," Paine said. "So we're looking for them."

"Oh, are those the two that were kidnapped from the Blitzball store? I heard all about that, how terrible!"

"So, kid, since we've got a whole city to search, we've got to get a move on it," Rikku said hurriedly. She evidently didn't care for Aya much. Either that or the singed bit of braid that she was eyeing was bothering her immensely.

"I'm not a kid, I'm sixteen," Aya protested. "Besides, you're forgetting that I've lived in Luca my entire life. I know almost every secret there is to know about this city!"

"We don't need your help," Rikku said at once.

"Then again, she seems to know where you're going," Aya said, pointing at Rikku. "So you'll know all about how to get into the secret basement beneath the Stadium where your friends could easily be stowed, right?"

"Well… no, but—"

"Then you do need my help!" Aya said brightly.

"We would be grateful," Yuna said.

"Not a problem, not a problem at all—follow me!" Aya said, leading the way through the crowded streets towards the enormous Blitzball stadium. Despite Aya's height, it was not difficult to spot her on a crowded street—her flaming red hair stood out against nearly everything. Lulu and Aya were getting along very well. They were leading the group around and talking about magic.

"The mage I used to know couldn't ever master transportation spells—can you do them?" Lulu asked.

"Yup," Aya replied, grinning. "They're really—"

"If you can do them, then why are we walking?" Rikku interrupted.

Aya whipped around. Grinning, she said, "You got legs, don'tcha?"

Lulu laughed. "Or maybe you don't think it's proper to use it when your destination is so close."

"Bingo," Aya said. "Plus it's way harder to transport more people."

"How did you become so skilled at magic if you're only sixteen?" Yuna questioned.

"My mom," Aya said simply. "She was amazing. She worked hard, though, and she taught me from when I was able to talk…"

"But?" Paine said expectantly.

"Dead," Aya said sullenly. "It's mostly just me and my brother now, since Dad's gone all the time. He thinks we can take care of ourselves, since Ryuen's seventeen, and I'm sixteen. Mostly he's right, but…"

Rikku's glaring expression softened considerably. "I'm sorry, Aya," she said quietly.

Both Yuna and Paine were watching Rikku knowingly. Yuna's easily readable expression was very reassuring, while Paine's plainly said "don't even _think _about it".

"It's alright," Aya said, keeping her eyes firmly in front of her and blinking often. "Ryuen and I will manage."

After that, they arrived at the stadium, which Aya seemed grateful for, as the awkward silence amongst the five of them ended.

"So, where are we headed?" Paine asked.

"Let's check the basement, first, and then we'll check the docks," Aya said. "It's like a labyrinth, I promise you, so try to stay close. Fiends guard whatever's down there… I'm not even really sure what. If we get into any real trouble, I'll try and transport us out of there, but I can't guarantee anything." She had a strangely determined look on her face as they walked into the stadium.

"Where is this basement, anyway?" Rikku asked, eyes swimming with curiosity.

"Just follow me," Aya said, trace of a smirk across her lips.

Before long, they ended up in the actual stadium where the Blitzball players played. Aya led the way down up into a corner of the stadium, where a trap door with a small keyhole was vaguely visible. Aya put her hands down right on top of the keyhole, and with a noise that sounded like a small explosion, the trap door burst open.

"Locks, you know," she said, turning around and grinning at the stunned faces of the four girls behind her.

Each girl in turn hopped down into what seemed to be a large storage room, full of things like blitzballs and other trinkets. There was one wall that was completely bare, save a small bookshelf. Aya pulled a particularly fat book off the shelf, revealing yet another small keyhole. She placed her hands over it, as she had done with the trap door, and with another explosion-like sound, the bookcase swung forward, revealing a dimly lit passageway.

"Voila, the basement," Aya said with flourish as she led the other girls down the passageway. She picked a lantern up that was near the door, quickly lit it, and proceeded down the hallway.

"Why all the secrecy?" Rikku asked.

"Dunno," Aya replied, shrugging her shoulders. "I've explored this a lot of times, and never found what they've got to be hiding under here. I think the fiends appear more the closer you get to this mysterious treasure. Since I'm always alone, I'm a little paranoid about fighting all these things myself. A girl can get drained pretty quick down here."

Rikku looked slightly terrified at this, but kept her cool. "What types of fiends are there?"

"All types," Aya answered. "They figure if you come prepared for one, the fact that there's so many will be your downfall. At least, I think."

"Seems logical," Yuna said with a nod. "The Gullwings are prepared for anything!"

...ooo...

Read Aya's part carefully over the next few chapters, and decide if you like her! I'll let you know when to start voting! I'd love it if you'd review, since it gives me a feel for how I'm writing this. Please, do! It makes me wonderfully happy!

Thanks for reading,

Lulala


	9. Chapter 9

Why hello, I'm back updating probably before you expected me to--I decided it's time to get this show on the road! (Another looooong chappie for you, by the way. If you don't like action much, you won't like it XD) I'll be busy this weekend, so expect another update by Wednesday the 27 for certain, if not before then! THANK YOU SOO MUCH to all who reviewed--let's break it down:

**Motet: **Nope, Aya isn't related to Lulu, or anyone we know! The only person of her real family that we'll see (if only briefly) is her older brother. Like she says, her father is rarely home, and her mother is dead, soo... but, nope, not in _any way _related to Lulu. Thanks for reviewing yet again :D

**7w7: **I'm glad!This is gonna be a coool fic, I promise XD Thank you for reviewing!

**DarkAnimePriestess:** I'm really happy you liked it! Thanks for the review!

**Paine3: **Haha,I believe you! You may have heard the name Aya if you've read the manga or watched the series 'SuperGALS!', like me XD Her name was originally Ayako, but after writing her a little bit, I shortened it to Aya, because I thought it suited her a little better.

...ooo...

As Aya led the way down the dimly lit tunnels, everyone was getting increasingly anxious. They hadn't spotted one single fiend yet, and they could tell by Aya's silence and the focused look on her face that she hadn't a clue where they were.

"Aya… where are we?" Rikku asked, quickly glancing at Paine when she realized how frightened she sounded.

"I'm… not sure," Aya admitted. "This is a big basement, though, and it could take awhile to search."

"Should we split up?" Paine asked.

"No, no," Aya replied, shaking her head in such a way that made her pigtails flop all around. "That would be dangerous. If you got into trouble, I couldn't transport us out if I didn't know where you were."

Paine nodded in understanding, a thoughtful look on her face, but said nothing more on the subject. A skittering noise from behind them successfully made everyone jump about a foot off the ground. Aya was the first to whip around to gaze upon whoever had snuck up on them, and they found it was an extremely large crop of fiends—about ten, to be exact.

"Time to fight!" Aya yelled. "Everyone take two!"

Paine smiled slightly, focused her gaze on two fiends that were headed toward her, and drew her sword. Tightening her grip as her smile grew, she charged at the lizard-like fiends. She swung her heavy sword at the yellowish one to her left, and it was sent reeling backward. The greenish one to her right charged at her, but met her blade instead of her leg. It too was sent reeling backward, while the yellow one made another run toward Paine. She jabbed her sword at it's tail, completely severing it. She stuck her sword through the green one, and with another slash at the yellow one, she abandoned the dead fiends and went to help anyone else who needed it.

Rikku had rushed forward, blades drawn. She crossed them, and then put them in front of a purpleish lizard's face, and quickly pulled them apart, leaving a huge slash across its face. She stuck both of them into a yellow one's head, and returned to the purple one, imitating what she had just done with the yellow one. She saw Paine finishing up with hers, and ran over to meet her.

Lulu hadn't even moved—she just cast her most powerful fire spell on two of them, and both were burned to an absolute crisp. She quickly turned to see how Aya would be handling hers.

When she had rushed forward, she had thrown her right hand out in front of her. With a loud 'HAH!', a huge, completely controlled blaze erupted from her palm, enveloping two lizards. It was such a powerful spell that her hair was wipping around, and her eyes were squinting with what was perhaps the difficulty of keeping the spell up. She closed her hand into a fist, and the fire stopped, hardly even leaving a pile of ashes of the fiends she had gotten.

Yuna was still struggling with hers—she had shot both of them at least four times, and yet, they were still charging at her. She quickly donned the warrior dressphere, and, using the giant sword, disposed of them without a problem.

That left the battle over, and all the girls were slightly sweating and panting—all except for Lulu, of course. They all stood over the remains of the fiends as they caught their breath.

"I can take care of this—" Aya muttered. She snapped her fingers, and the remains erupted into flames.

"That was a powerful spell," Lulu commented. "Why not use one like this?" she asked, pointing towards the pile of burning fiends.

"Not powerful enough to kill them," Aya said. "I've fought them before when I've been down here. If I used that spell, I'd have a burning fiend running at me, and that wouldn't be good, now would it?"

Lulu, Rikku, and Yuna all giggled. Paine looked as though she was fighting a smile, but nobody commented about it.

Aya continued walking, and the rest of the girls followed her. "So, what's down here that the fiends would be guarding, anyway?" Rikku asked.

"I'm not sure," Aya said in an almost thoughtful tone. "It could be anything, really."

"D'you think that the fiends could be guarding Wakka and Tidus?" Rikku asked.

"Maybe," Aya replied. "But they've always been here, ever since I started exploring."

"Who would want to put Wakka and Tidus down here, anyway?" Yuna wanted to know.

"Who kidnapped them is a better question," Lulu said. "If we knew that, then we might know where to look."

"Do we even know anything about that?" Rikku asked.

"Nothing, other than that it was a woman," Lulu said sadly. "I think we'd better go and talk to the Blitzball shop owner while we're here, though."

"Good idea," Paine agreed. "Let's ask him more questions about the kidnapper, and see if that gets us anywhere."

"He said before that she was wearing a long, hooded, black cloak, so I doubt we're going to get anything more on her looks," Lulu told them.

"I'd like to know more about how she made them disappear," Paine said. "I mean, she must have been magic, because there's really no other way to make them disappear."

Aya suddenly perked up. "You know, the motion for transportation spells is pretty universal," she said.

Yuna, Rikku, and Paine all looked slightly confused, but Lulu seemed to understand. "She means that, as you've seen, mages do different motions to get their spells. You've seen mine, and you've seen two of Aya's—she can snap her fingers or make it come from her palms. The motion for mages to do transportation spells is the same for all of them, though, because it's such a cut-and-dry spell."

Yuna and Paine were nodding in understanding, but Rikku was still looking clueless. "What she means is, we can ask him what the person did before they made Tidus and Wakka disappear, and if she did the motion for a transportation spell, then she has to be a mage," Aya finished for Lulu.

Rikku's eyes widened in comprehension. "OH!" she said loudly. "I get it now! See, I would have _never _guessed that."

Paine looked extremely tempted to say something, but she didn't. All of the sudden, as they turned a corner, Rikku screeched at what she saw. Four gigantic Chimeras, standing there as if they had been waiting for the five girls to come along.

Rikku latched on to Yuna as she whimpered in fright. "Th-those are HUGE!" she said, voice quivering noticeably. Ordinarily, she wasn't afraid of them, but these were literally MEGA Chimeras.

"Let's fight em," Paine said, drawing her sword.

"But… but… but…" Rikku stuttered.

Paine's eyes narrowed as she turned to look at Rikku. "Here," she said, chucking a garment grid at Rikku. "If you want to feel safer, change your dressphere."

Rikku donned the Berserker dressphere, and suddenly seemed much more confident.

"Weaknesses," Aya said from behind them, "are the middle head and on its stomach between its two hind legs. Absorbs thunder magic," she added to Lulu. A smile spread across her face, and she said, "Go to it!"

She bent down and slammed the palm of her hand flat onto the ground. The Chimera in front of her was suddenly enveloped in a geyser of water that shot up from the ground. It collapsed into a heap, breathing heavily. Aya snapped her fingers and a gigantic lump of ice appeared out of nowhere and enclosed the Chimera as it made a yelping noise. After another powerful water spell, the Chimera had stopped breathing all together, and Aya went over to help someone else.

Paine charged at the Chimeras, sword drawn. She chopped off the rightmost head of one in one fell swoop, and proceeded to make a long gash down its side. It didn't seem bothered by the gash, probably due to its thick skin, so Paine jabbed her sword at its stomach, not entirely certain she had found the right place. After the roar that the Chimera made, she became certain. She plunged her sword into its stomach again, and it fell down, panting. She ran back to the front of the Chimera, where the two remaining heads were laying on the ground, breathing heavily. One more swing of her sword, and the Chimera was dead.

Rikku, still frightened, had simply followed Yuna. Yuna swung her sword almost clumsily at the Chimera's heads, and it reared back onto its hind legs. In a burst of confidence, Rikku ran under it as it was reared up and ran her claws all along the weak spot, getting out just before it fell back to the ground, growling in pain. Rikku ran around and began clawing at its faces, while she yelled to Yuna, "Go get it on its stomach!"

Yuna obeyed, and ran around to its side. She put her sword under the Chimera's stomach, and sliced. The Chimera let out an even louder growl, and whipped around to face Yuna. She managed to sink her sword into the middle head, while Rikku was trying to claw at its underside. The chimera collapsed. Yuna and Rikku turned to Lulu, who had been casting multiple water spells, and at last, the Chimera fell.

Aya surveyed the scene once the battle was over. All the girls were panting heavily, save Lulu and herself. Like she had with the last batch of fiends, she snapped her fingers and lit them on fire to make sure they were all dead, and watched their bodies dissolve into pyreflies. "Let's get going before more come," Aya said at last. Leading the way, the girls continued down the passageway, positively dreading the next fiends that would come their way.

"It seems like they just get bigger and bigger," Rikku was saying. "First, there were those little tiny lizards—I can handle those. But the jumbo Chimeras? Uh-uh," she said, shaking her head.

"Rikku," Paine said, an edge of annoyance easily noticeable, "you didn't even get hurt when we fought the Chimeras, so what are you complaining about?"

She did her famous 'Rikku giggle'. "Um, well, since I've never seen a freakin' Chimera that big _in my life_…"

"They _were _unusually big," Yuna commented thoughtfully.

"Don't expect the fiends down here to be normal," Aya said. "Whatever they've got down her, it's guarded pretty good."

"I wish we could find out," Rikku said longingly. "It's really buggin' me!"

Yuna giggled. "We'll see how far we get."

Aya was looking ahead of them thoughtfully as they walked. "You know, since we've got plenty of people, we probably _could _find out what's down here…"

"Tell me more," Rikku said, smiling slightly and quirking an eyebrow.

"I was always scared to go really far by myself, because I believe as you get closer, the fiends pop up more. Sure, if I was missing for long enough Ryuen would figure it out and come get me, but he's basically useless at fighting, and I don't fancy getting eaten by a fiend," she said with a grimace. "Since there's plenty of us, I think we could do it!"

"Ryuen?" Yuna repeated.

"My brother," Aya said.

"Oh, that's right, sorry."

Aya turned to Rikku. "So, whaddaya think?"

A smile stretched from ear to ear on Rikku's face. "Let's do it!"

With renewed confidence, Rikku and Aya sped in front of the group, laughing, as they turned a corner and hurried down a random path, hoping that it led them to the secret treasure of the basement.

...ooo...

Sooo...? I thought I did an okay job with this, but let me know... writing action is a little different, but, hey, I tried XD Review, please!

Thank ya muchly,

Lulala


	10. Chapter 10

Back with another quick review! The chapters just keep getting longer... I promise I'll shorten em up a bit, cuz this is honestly reeeeally long! THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who reviewed:

**7w7: **Very glad you like it :D Thank you for reviewing!

**Motet: **Why, thank ya! Thanks for reviewing, as always!

**DarkAnimePriestess: **I'm glad you thought it was good! Thank ya kindly for sending a review my way!

**Paine3: **Ah, I've never seen Fruits Basket. Enjoy the new chapter, and thanks for the review!

...ooo...

Yuna, Lulu, and Paine hung back as Aya and Rikku dashed around a corner. They continued walking normal paced, following the sounds of Rikku and Aya's laughter.

"Neither of them are being serious," Paine grumbled. "We're not here to find some silly treasure—we're looking for something so much more important than that."

"Aya's just a kid," Yuna reminded Paine gently. "And Rikku… well, she's only a year older, and she…"

"Acts like a child," Paine promptly finished for Yuna. "I know, but it's not an excuse."

"Aya _did _say before that the mysterious thing that's down here could be Wakka and Tidus," Lulu reminded Paine. "And if that's true, then looking for it isn't a waste of time."

"She also said the fiends have been here ever since she started exploring," Paine said. "Which was definitely before yesterday, by my estimations, since she knew exactly where a Chimera's weak spots were, and she doesn't look like she could lift a sword, much less swing one."

"So she's smart, then," Lulu said. "Researching fiends is as easy as reading a book."

"She's sixteen," Paine reminded Lulu sharply.

"She's incredibly bright!" Lulu retorted, voice raising slightly. "I'm sure she's done her homework when it comes to fiends."

Paine was eyeing Lulu skeptically. "Something is fishy about her. How could she know all this, and have such a good grasp on magic—maybe even better than you?"

Lulu flushed at the last few words of Paine's comment. "I don't know… maybe the way she says she knows all of it?" Lulu said, temper flaring. "There is nothing suspicious about a sixteen year old girl with extraordinary intelligence when it comes to magic. You heard her, her mother taught her everything."

"I don't get what the big deal is about her being sixteen, either," Yuna piped up. "I mean, Rikku was probably about that age when she first started traveling with us on our pilgrimage."

Paine seemed to have talked herself into a corner. She was glaring fixedly at Lulu and Yuna, and continued walking without another word. Lulu made eye contact with Yuna, who shrugged.

Despite the awkwardness of having just argued over the first of what would probably be many disagreements, the three girls trudged on. When they at last caught up with Aya and Rikku, who were waiting for them at a fork in the passageway, an awkward silence descended over all of them, including the two younger girls, who had been giggling and chattering like the teenagers they were when Yuna, Paine, and Lulu arrived.

"Don't run ahead again," Lulu said sternly. "I thought you said it was best not to get separated," she said with a sharp look at Aya.

Aya flushed. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just… I mean, Rikku and I just sort of… got caught up in the moment, I guess…" her voice trailed off as she radiated shame.

"Which way is this mysterious treasure, anyway?" Yuna asked. "Because I think we should keep moving before more fiends—"

As if on cue, four more fiends sped up the passageway leading left towards the girls—four Liches, to be exact.

"Run!" Aya screamed, positioning herself in front of everyone else. "They've got this nasty attack—run!" she repeated, voice quivering wildly.

A Lich charged at her, and tried to plunge its clawed hand into her heart—an attack entitled 'Death'. Aya put her forearm out in front of her heart, and a translucent red shield appeared, and seemed to be keeping the Lich from touching her. As Yuna and Rikku stood, paralyzed, both looking entirely unsure of what to do, Lulu took that moment to set a Lich ablaze with a fire spell, and Paine slashed one clean in half, dissolving it into pyreflies. Aya was still struggling against the determined Lich, eyes squinting shut as she fought to keep her shield up. Tears slowly streamed down Aya's cheeks, when at last, she put the shield down in one swoop of her arm, threw her hand out in front of her, and blasted the Lich into nothingness before it could kill her.

Yuna and Rikku seemed to have been relieved of their temporary paralysis—Rikku had donned the Gunner dressphere, and they were shooting at the remaining Lich. Lulu helped out with another spell, and just like that, the Liches were dead.

Aya was panting, and there were tiny scratches all up and down her right forearm. She ran her left palm up and down her injured arm, and the scratches disappeared. Rikku was watching her, looking confused. "Why'd you tell us to run?"

Aya looked over at her. "You've fought them before?"

Rikku nodded.

"I didn't know," Aya replied. "I had no idea they lived in places other than this."

"Bevelle Underground, and some others," Paine said. "Mostly dark places."

"I'm sorry," Aya said, looking fixedly at the ground and rocking back and forth nervously on her feet. Paine's fierce gaze had that effect on most people. "I didn't know—thought they'd whip their claws out and kill you all."

Lulu laughed, albeit a bit bitterly. "They couldn't kill us—we've had plenty of practice."

"I just… didn't want it to hurt all of you… it would be my fault…"

"Don't worry," Yuna said consolingly. "You tried to save us, and that was very brave."

Aya didn't look up. "Anyway, I'm assuming since the fiends came from this way," she said, pointing towards the left passageway, "that that's the way we should go."

Everyone nodded, and followed Aya's lead down the tunnel.

...ooo...

The battles got increasingly fierce as they descended down the passageway. There seemed to be nearly every type of fiend Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had ever encountered in this basement, and then some. It soon became all too clear to them—just as Aya had said, whatever they had down here, it was guarded very well. There was no way one person could have tackled all of the fiends that swarmed them as they hurried down the passageway. Aya was working overtime, healing people while also doing offensive magic. Everyone knew she was completely worn out when she collapsed to her knees after a particularly fierce battle with some strong Behemoths. She pulled a small bottle of a green liquid out of one of her many pouches in her brown belt, and drank every last drop from the bottle.

"Ether," Lulu said with a smirk. "You came prepared."

Aya nodded. "You need one?"

Lulu shook her head. "Not quite yet. How much did that shield take out of you?"

"Pretty much everything," Aya confessed. "It _is _the most draining spell I know, other than transportation."

"Understandable," Lulu said with a nod as she helped Aya up. "Let's get going, then."

The girls continued through the network of passageways, occasionally turning down a likely looking one.

"They could be anywhere in here," Paine grumbled. "We can't search the whole place."

"It's not likely they're here," Lulu said. "The fiends would swarm."

"So if they are, we're heading in the right direction," Aya added.

It was true—they were following the fiends. They figured that they must be congregating wherever the mysterious object was, and if Wakka and Tidus were there, that would definitely be where the fiends were.

"Most of the fiends were coming toward us," Yuna said. "So it makes sense that we're going the right way… right?"

"Right," Rikku answered, though not sounding entirely sure of it herself.

Before long, the fiends had grown so dense that they had taken to all wearing the Black Mage dressphere and blasting them all away with different types of spells. They fought their way through what seemed to be an endless army of fiends, until the attacks abruptly stopped. When the girls finally came upon a door, their excitement was brimming—they had fought their way through all fiends, and here they were, very much hoping that there was something other than an endless labyrinth of passageways on the other side.

Aya walked up to the door, pressed her palms against it, and blew it off its hinges. "Whoops," she said with a giggle. "Got a little over-enthusiastic there…"

They ran through the doorway, and entered a large room with a dome ceiling. In the center of the room on a pedestal, was obviously the prize that had been so heavily guarded by fiends.

All five girls gaped at what they saw in wide-eyed and open-mouthed surprise.

"Somehow," Paine began a bit angrily, "I feel let down."

"In a big way," Lulu agreed, glaring at said object.

"I think it's… really funny!" Rikku said, bursting out into uncontrollable laughter. Aya joined right along with her.

"A Blitzball trophy," Yuna said, closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly in disbelief. "We should have known."

There, in the center of the room, sat the Blitzball trophy that whichever lucky team won the Luca Tournament would get. As Aya and Rikku howled with laughter, Paine mumbled, "I can't believe it."

"So much security over a trophy," Lulu agreed fiercely.

"Would you _quit _laughing?" Paine said sharply to Aya and Rikku. Both of them shut up rather quickly.

"Can you get us out of here, Aya?" Yuna asked her.

"All that work for a Blitzball trophy… can you believe it!" Rikku was saying to Aya.

"No, I can't!" Aya said in agreement. "I mean, who'da thunk it…"

Lulu cleared her throat loudly. "Aya!"

"But those Chimeras way back at the beginning were nothing compared to the Behemoths—"

"Oh, I know!" Aya said. "I hadn't even gotten to the Behemoths before, it was a bit of a shock to find them down here, I'll admit—"

"Aya!" Lulu said again.

Aya at last turned to Lulu. "Sorry, what?"

"Can you transport us out of here?"

"Oh, right," Aya said, shaking her head sharply as though she were trying to clear it out. Everyone stood a bit closer together, facing Aya. She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. She slowly raised her arms above her head, palms facing up towards the ceiling. Before everyone knew it, they all felt the odd sensation of being thrown into an icy cold lake, and suddenly, their feet all slammed into the ground. As they all looked around, they realized that they were just outside the stadium doors.

"Amazing!" Lulu said, sounding extremely impressed. Aya's mouth twisted into a half smile.

"Let's search the docks, then, and then we'll go talk to that old man at the shop," she said. She looked around for a moment, and set off towards the docks.

"That was weird," Rikku said to Yuna. "I've never felt anything like that before."

Yuna nodded in agreement. "I know, but… that would sure be useful, don't you think?"

They followed Aya all throughout the docks without much success. When they finally were walking towards the Blitzball shop, Aya called out to someone that none of the other girls had ever seen before.

"Ryuen! Hey, RYUEN!"

A tall, red haired boy looked over at Aya. He, like Aya, had greenish eyes, and a couple of scattered freckles. The most glaring difference between Aya and Ryuen was their height—Ryuen was quite tall, and Aya was extremely short. "Hey, Aya," he said casually. He noticed the other four girls that were following Aya over to him, and his eyebrows shot up. "What… I mean, where have you been?"

"You know, around," she said ambiguously.

He eyed her knowingly, along with a tear in her skirt that Aya didn't notice before. "If 'around' means that secret basement, how many times—"

"I was with them," Aya told him fiercely. "They're all really good fighters!"

Ryuen at last got a good enough look at Yuna to recognize her. He straightened up almost immediately. "Lady Yuna, I didn't realize it was you—"

"Your sister is very kind," Yuna interrupted him. "She's been helping us search for our friends. I assure you, she was perfectly safe in that basement with us."

"Oh, I—I see," Ryuen said, sounding a bit nervous. "Well, Aya, that was very good of you."

"Wasn't it?" she said, smiling sarcastically at him. "We're going to the Blitzball store, now, so I'll see you later." With that, she marched off, the other four girls following after her hurriedly.

When they arrived at the Blitzball store, the old man about had a heart attack. "What do you want, missy?" he asked Aya, warily eyeing the girls behind her.

"Just to ask you a few questions," she said conversationally, smiling. "Relax. Lulu, you had some things you wanted to ask, correct?"

Lulu nodded. When she saw the alarmed look on the store keeper's face, she said quickly, "No, I'm not going to tear your store apart again. I just wanted to ask you… what did this woman do before my friends disappeared? Did she wave her arms or anything like that?"

"As a matter of fact, she did," the man said. "Put them up above her head like this—" he put his arms up in the exact way that Aya had done before she had transported them out of the basement.

All of the girls exchanged knowing looks. "And did you see what she looked like at all? I remember you telling me that she was wearing a cloak, but even anything would be okay," Lulu asked uncertainly.

"I didn't see nothing," the man said. "Couldn't even have heard her talk if she did—it was awfully loud in here, you know."

"Thank you," Lulu said. "We'll come back if we think of anything else to ask you."

"You do that," the man said, watching their every move as though he expected them to suddenly turn around on their way out and tear apart his shop.

When they were back out on the street, Aya said, "So she was a mage."

"A break through at last," Yuna said wearily. "I guess the Mi'ihen Highroad is next…"

...ooo...

Remember when I told you to keep a close watch on Aya? Well, it's time to vote! The question is: toss her or keep her? Either they leave her in Luca or bring her along--it's up to you! If you like her or dislike her, vote, and she will be there for the rest of the fic, or won't be around anymore--the choice is yours. Vote if you wanna have any control over whether she stays or goes! Just submit a review saying what you want, I'll tally them up (assuming there is much to tally, that is) and you'll know at the beginning of the next chapter :D Leave me lovely reviews, and don't forget to vote!

Thank ya muchly,

Lulala


	11. Chapter 11

Hi, all! This chapter isn't as good, at least I don't think it is, but I was completely determined to get this up! I just recently got a job, and was really busy training and stuff all week, soo... as for the Aya voting, we had one for keep her, one who said they liked her (keep her, I'm assuming?), one who said toss her, and one who it didn't really make a difference to. So, if that's the case, then I'm keepin' her around! She won't be around as much... I said I'd keep her, and I will--she'll keep popping up, and we'll check in with her every couple chapters or so, but she won't be following the Gullwings around. Hope that works for all of you, since the main reason why I'm writing this is to keep all of you entertained :D THANK YOU to all who reviewed:

**Motet: **Nope, I don't consider that a diss to my OC. I asked for what you thought, after all! I do like Aya, but I think that's because I gave her my hair color, and just a tiny bit of my personality, cuz I'm stubborn. She's not really modeled after me, but I thought about making someone who was a bit firey and stubborn, and I immediately thought of a short, red-haired girl:D

**Paine3: **It's okay ifit doesn't really make a difference to you... but thank you for reviewing anyways!

**7w7: **I actually thought about that when I created Aya! At this point, I will neither confirm nor deny Aya's involvment with Tidus and Wakka's kidnapping. Thanks for the review!

**DarkAnimePriestess: **I don't really get writer's block on this fic, because I know where I'm going with it, generally speaking. It's much easier when you've got your ideas thought out. Thanks for reviewing :D

* * *

Aya walked with the girls all the way to the edge of Luca. The other four girls began to climb the stairs that led up towards the Mi'ihen Highroad, but Aya hesitated, watching the other four girls, looking unsure. Rikku suddenly turned around, and looked at Aya with a confused expression. "Aren't you coming?"

Aya looked at Yuna uncertainly. Yuna nodded. "Okay!" Aya said happily, racing up the stairs to join them.

"So, what have we got to search here?" Lulu asked.

Aya was glaring around at all the people who were staring at her. "Haven't you ever seen someone with red hair before?" she grumbled.

"Well, there's that nasty dungeon full of bugs," Paine said, nose slightly wrinkled in disgust.

The girls made their way down the road, stopping occasionally for a quick battle with fiends. You could hardly call them battles after the fiends that had attacked them in the basement, and nearly all of them were over with a snap of Aya's fingers, or a wave of Lulu's arm. Paine became increasingly grumpy—she, evidently, would rather handle the fiends the hard way as opposed to eliminating all of them with one shot of magic. After a bit longer, they had finally found the way down into the lower level of the highway. When they at last unearthed the entrance to the cave, Paine was only too eager to get inside.

"Those bugs are going down," she said in a low, intense voice.

"I think we should split up," Lulu said, interrupting Paine's immediate plans to charge into the cave.

"Say whaa?" Rikku said. "I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd want to be in the group that doesn't have Aya."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Yuna asked, looking skeptical.

"The worst thing we're going to meet in here is bugs," Aya said, hands on her hips as she surveyed the entrance to the cave appraisingly. "Lulu or I could blow them all away, if we really wanted. It would be easy to get out."

"What if we get lost?" Paine asked, eyes narrowed warily.

"You won't," Aya assured her. She pulled something out of one of the pouches on her belt, and tossed it to Paine.

"A compass," Paine said.

"The exit is due South," Aya told her.

"How do you know all this?" Paine asked, eyebrow raised inquisitively.

"Exploration, my friend," Aya said. "This is the farthest I've gotten… I have to be back home every night, or Ryuen throws a fit. Otherwise, I would have gone farther."

"It's settled, then," Yuna said. "We'll cover more ground if we split up, anyway. The fiends probably won't be gravitating towards one place, since we killed their King a couple months back, so we'll have to search the whole thing."

"My thoughts exactly," Lulu said, nodding in agreement.

"There should be a mage in each group, too," Yuna said. "In case we need to get out."

"Let's go… Aya, Yuna, and Rikku," Lulu said. "And then Paine and I."

Paine, looking quite relieved, said immediately, "Done," and led the way into the cave.

The girls walked as a group until they came to the first fork in the path. Rikku handed Lulu and Paine a communicator so that the two groups could talk to each other. Paine and Lulu took the right fork, and Aya, Yuna, and Rikku took the left.

"I still can't believe that you can do all this cool stuff, like transportation spells," Rikku was saying to Aya as the three girls walked along the passageway. "And how you blew that door off its hinges, and how you—"

Aya laughed. "Rikku, you're easily amazed."

"Nuh uh," Rikku said. "I just know I could never do that!"

"You could with the right amount of training," Aya said.

"I wish you could be a Gullwing," Rikku said. "Wouldn't it be fun to come around with us all the time?"

Aya smiled faintly. "Yeah, it would be… but I've got an inkling about Luca… I think maybe after this, I should go back and take another look around… no, no, not in that basement… just, around in general… I mean, there could be some secrets that I've missed. I just feel like there's something there…"

"Or, you could check around the other areas in Spira for clues," Yuna suggested.

"By herself?" Rikku asked, horrified.

"It's fine," Aya said in a shrugging tone. "I can't teleport to places I haven't been, which rules out half the areas, but I could bring Ryuen along with me."

"It's a good idea," Yuna said thoughtfully.

"I'll think about it," Aya said with a lopsided smile. Despite the fact that she had said it would be fine, they could tell she didn't like the idea at all.

The awkward silence that followed the short conversation didn't last long. They soon came upon a wall, and a rather thick one at that. "Aya, if you would?" Rikku said, giggling a little at her own use of an obscenely proper tone.

Aya smiled, and focused in on the wall. She strode up to the wall immediately, and said as she was pressing her hands on the wall, "Stand back!" The wall exploded suddenly, and the once solid rock wall crumbled to the ground, now a mere pile of gravel. Aya, still smirking, brushed herself off hurriedly, and said to Yuna and Rikku, "C'mon, let's go!"

Yuna and Rikku followed her over the pile of rubble and on through the cave. In order to keep their progress quick through the cave, each time they encountered some of the gigantic bugs that attacked them often, Aya threw her right hand out in front of herself, and completely torched them. It kept the battles to a minimum, and it didn't seem like Aya minded casting all the spells or exploding all of the walls. At any rate, she didn't seem to be getting the least bit tired. She had led Rikku and Yuna all around the dungeon at such a fast walking pace that it left them completely worn out.

When Rikku and Yuna were completely wiped out, and felt like they couldn't take another step, they came up upon another particularly thick looking wall, which Yuna and Rikku immediately pounced on as a time to rest. Aya walked up to the wall, and peered at it uncertainly for a moment. She raised an eyebrow, and slowly placed her hands on the wall. It exploded, and revealed a particularly horrified looking Paine and Lulu standing behind it, a bomb clutched in Paine's hand.

"Relax, it's just us," Aya said with a giggle. "I kind of figured you were there… bits of this wall were obviously already gone on the other side… there was a big crack."

Lulu put her hand on her chest and continued breathing heavily. "Don't scare us like that!"

Aya and Rikku both laughed. "That was _funny_!" Rikku squealed.

Aya smiled. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Well, nothing here," Paine grumbled grumpily. "Let's just get back to the airship, now, please."

"Aya?" Yuna asked. "Would you please get us out of here?"

Laughing, Aya nodded. She repositioned herself, raised her hands above her head, and shut her eyes. They all felt again as though they were being forcibly held under icy cold water, until they were out of the cave. The sunlight was the first thing they noticed—it felt so warm in contrast to the bitterly cold feeling they all had when they were being transported. Everyone was standing except for Aya, who was laying on the ground on her back, holding her head, her eyes tightly shut. It seemed as though she thought keeping her eyes shut would squeeze all the pain out of her head. She writhed in pain for a moment, before finally calming down as everyone huddled around here. Lulu reached for one of Aya's pouches on her belt, and pulled out a familiar looking green liquid. She poured it slowly down Aya's throat. Within minutes, Aya was getting up hastily off the ground, and acting as though nothing had happened.

"Sorry about that," she said, dusting herself off. "A bit of backshock is all. That's a nasty spell…"

Lulu smiled softly, and nodded in understanding. "You're okay now, of course?"

"Fine," Aya said, grinning. "Thank you, Lulu."

"Brother," Paine barked into her communicator. "Get your tattooed butt down here!"

"I cannot go into a basement with my airship, Paine!" Brother yelled back angrily.

"We're not in the basement, stupid, we're on the lower level of the Mi'ihen Highroad near the secret cave," Paine shot back.

"Fine," Brother snapped, clicking off.

"Jerk," Paine mumbled under her breath.

"Would you like a ride back to Luca, Aya?" Yuna asked her.

Rikku let out a small whine, and shot a pleading look at Yuna. Yuna shook her head slightly, hoping Aya wouldn't notice.

"Sure," Aya replied.

They all sat in silence as they waited for any sound of the airship. When they at last heard it, they all jumped up and down with joy—it had already been a long day, and they were all more than ready for sleep, despite the fact that it was just sunset.

Once they were all on the airship, Aya told Brother to drop her off near the sphere theater, and they were off. Before Aya got off, Yuna handed her a communicator.

"Aya, this is for you," Yuna said. "Keep it on at all times, and keep it with you. If there are any new developments in this, radio us. We'll be in touch with you if we need you, and don't hesitate to call us, even over a small thing."

Aya grinned. "Thank you, and I'll definitely be calling you!" she said happily, gingerly placing the communicator in one of her pouches. She had seemed slightly grim since they had boarded the airship, but as she left, she was all smiles—evidently, staying in contact with the Gullwings was all she had wanted. The prospect of leaving her new friends hadn't been all that appealing, but now that she had her communicator, she left with a huge smile spread from ear to ear.

"She's finally gone," Paine said once Aya had left.

"Hey, I wanted her to stay," Rikku said, sounding her offended. "How could you not want to keep someone like that around?" she demanded of Yuna.

"Maybe when she's a little older," Yuna said. "I don't want her getting into life threatening situations at 16."

"But I was!" Rikku protested.

"I know you were," Yuna replied calmly. "But we don't want to do that to another person, do we?"

Rikku's eyes fell on the ground. "I guess you're right."

"Besides, you can talk to her any time you want," Yuna said reassuringly. Paine scoffed behind Rikku's back at this.

"I'll miss watching her do her magic," Rikku said, an air of sadness about her.

"I will too," Lulu agreed. "Quite flashy, but effective, nonetheless…"

"Why were her motions different, anyway?" Rikku asked.

"It's based on how you want the spell to work, or how you want to control it," Lulu explained. "She prefers having a greater control over hers than I do, but she seems to have a more close combat fighting style than I do. Sometimes, you can even change your motion to increase power, though I doubt this is the case with Aya. She just seems as though she prefers a greater amount of control over her spells."

"Why don't you want more control?"

"I had always heard that using motions like that would decrease your power, because it is, of course, much more difficult to control your magic in that way, which would in turn weaken it. I preferred to keep it simple. By no means am I old, but I'm a bit too old to learn this fairly modern style of magic."

"You couldn't be too old!"

"I am," Lulu assured Rikku. "It's better to learn when you're younger. Just like controlling your magic is harder, the older you are, the harder it is on you, and the harder it is on you, the weaker the spell will be."

Rikku finally seemed to have run out of questions. "That's so cool!" she decided at last.

"Yes. Aya is a very powerful mage," Lulu said with a trace of a smile. "And I believe she knows this. Right now, I think we're fortunate that she's using her powers for good things, like helping people, and exploring. We're very lucky that she's not completely set on ruling Spira—I'd be worried if she were trying to take over."

Paine scoffed again. "I still think something's strange about her."

"She's fine," Yuna said immediately. "Let's just get some rest before heading to… well… where do you guys want to go next?"

"Let's backtrack to Kilika," Rikku suggested. "Mushroom Rock Road can wait, for now."

"I can agree with that," Lulu said with a nod.

"Then tomorrow, Kilika it is!" Yuna said, leading the way back towards the elevator.

* * *

If you liked it, leave me a review, please! This chapter was a little bit rushed, but I haven't updated for awhile, so I wanted to get this up. Let me know what you think!

Thank you sooo much,

Lulala


	12. Chapter 12

Wow... I keep saying they'll get shorter, but... they just keep getting longer O.o So sorry! I just can't stop writing on this thing :D THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all who reviewed:

**Motet:** When I just recently decided what I was for sure going to do with Aya, I decided that she would be back (as you'll see in this chapter) but she won't see Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and Paine for awhile. I'll be getting everyone caught up with what she's up to by just shifting the story to her maybe once every couple chapters. Thank ya kindly for reviewing!

**Paine3: **Haha XD I would find her strange, too... I was trying for her to be spunky/cute/stubborn... you can see how well that worked out XD Thanks for the review!

**7w7: **I'm still really glad you like it and that you keep reading! Thanks for the review!

**DarkAnimePriestess: **Glad you think I'm doing good! I don't mind questions, so don't worry :D Thank you for reviewing!

Okay, everyone, you find out a bit more about Aya's family in this chapter. Sorry it's so long!

* * *

Rikku was the first girl to wake up the next morning. She crept across the room, and poked Yuna's arm. "Yunie… hey, Yunie…"

Yuna groaned, and flipped over onto her side. Rikku's eyes shot up to the ceiling in annoyance. "Hey, YUNIE!"

Yuna's eyes shot open. "What?" she demanded tersely.

"Time to get up," Rikku said. She woke Lulu, who had a much calmer reaction, and Paine, who rolled out of bed and seemed quite short with Rikku until they were ready to depart for Kilika. None were particularly excited to be searching the woods. It was basically a maze with endless dead ends, nooks, and crannies where Wakka and Tidus could easily be stored. They had already pretty much figured it would be a place where civilians don't generally go, otherwise they would have been found by now. Still, the giant, looming task of Kilika stood before them, and even Rikku seemed a bit downcast.

"We should talk to Aya again later," Rikku suggested as they rode down in the elevator to the bridge. "See if she found anything."

"How's she even going to help?" Paine asked, eyes falling on Rikku and narrowing.

"I think I can answer that," Lulu began. "She's probably going to go have a better look at that shop, and try to trace that spell. Then, she can follow it, and let us know what she found."

Paine scowled. "Like she could do that."

* * *

As the sun broke through her window, Aya stirred. Her eyes fluttered open moments later. She rolled out of bed onto the floor. She winced as she got up. "Guess I shouldn't have done that," she said with a small chuckle. She pushed the door to her small bedroom open, and walked across a living room with scattered pieces of mismatched furniture, and into a bedroom similar in size and shape to hers, but with very different objects in it. Her brother lay in his bed, spread eagle in the center, with a large grin plastered on his face.

Aya plopped down on the foot of his bed. "Hey, Ryuen?"

He woke up the instant she sat down. "What do you want? It's early still!"

"I was just wondering… I know you haven't studied much of magic other than your… well… medium, but… do you think it would be possible to trace a transportation spell?"

"If the person was messy about it, yeah," Ryuen replied with a cautious nod. "Why do you ask?"

"Because… I'm looking into something for some friends, and…"

"Not those sphere hunters," Ryuen said with a groan. "Aya, I don't want you to get mixed up with that. Especially if that kidnapping was _her _doing."

"Who's?"

"You know," Ryuen replied simply. "Mom told us stories about her all the time. You were amazed when you were a kid. She would tell you all the stories she had heard from the people around Spira that had seen her. She knew what that mage could do… we all did. You vowed you'd be just as powerful as her one day, and... well... It doesn't seem there are many left that can work those types of spells, so… there's a good chance."

"She can't have been that good," Aya said with a scowl. "She died, didn't she?"

"Some people think she did," Ryuen said. "Some don't. Like I said, there aren't many mages around. Black and White, sure… not many like you, though, I'm betting."

"So what's this lady's name?" Aya asked, hands on her hips.

"Kana," Ryuen replied. "I'm surprised you don't remember."

Aya's gaze hardened. "I stopped thinking about other mages a long time ago."

"Aya, I know you're still upset, but—"

"Don't," Aya said warningly. "I'm going to go try to trace this spell. Are you coming or not?"

"If you find out you're dealing with Kana, please promise me you'll leave it alone," Ryuen said pleadingly. "She'd kill you—"

"Not if I kill her first," Aya said darkly. "Besides… you can't hide it from me now that you've told me all this stuff. I know mom was killed by a mage, and you just told me there aren't many around... it was her, wasn't it?"

"I'm not telling you," Ryuen snapped. "And how do you even know how mom died?"

"You think I can't tell just by going to her grave?" Aya asked in disbelief. "I can feel it, dimwit, and so can you, so it's no use lying."

Ryuen stared at his feet. "You're smarter than people give you credit for."

"Damn straight," Aya said, glaring at Ryuen. "Now, I'm going out. Are you coming?"

"I might as well," Ryuen said, pulling himself out of bed. "After all, I want to have a look at this spell."

"It might be gone by now," Aya said. "It's worth looking, I guess."

Aya got dressed, and she and Ryuen left the house together.

"Transport?" Ryuen asked hopefully.

"No," Aya replied flatly.

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please?"

"Absolutely freakin' not!"

"Fine," Ryuen snuffed, sticking his nose up in the air. "I don't even really care, anyway."

Aya bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at him. They walked in silence the rest of the way to the Blitzball shop. Aya lead, and Ryuen followed close behind her through the crowded streets. The shop seemed to be opened when they arrived there. Aya pushed the door open, and heard a bell tinkle. The same old man that had been there the day before came out of the back room, and looked as though he wanted to retreat back to the room he had just been in when he saw Aya and Ryuen.

"More of you?" he asked, sounding horrified.

"Actually, we just came to look around in here," Aya replied. "Is it okay with you if we just hang around for a bit?"

"Well… I mean—"

"It's crucial to the investigation," Aya added smartly.

"Alright," the man finally agreed. "But make it snappy… don't want you scarin' off my customers."

Ryuen stifled a laugh, wondering how a five-foot tall girl with flaming red pigtails could possibly scare someone away. Aya shot him a glare, before slowly walking around the store with her eyes closed, concentrating as hard as she possibly could. She continued to walk, miraculously without running into anything. She stopped near the center of the store, and, eyes still closed, reached her arm out in front of her, as if she were trying to grab something. Her arm suddenly stopped moving and went rigid.

"Very clean… very good job indeed. This could be more difficult than I thought," Aya muttered. She plopped down on the spot, and sat there, legs crossed, looking as though she were meditating. "Gotta find it," she murmured.

She didn't move for another forty five minutes.

"You done yet?" Ryuen asked impatiently.

"No," Aya replied shortly. "They did a very good job of covering their tracks, and I've got to remove loads of other stuff before I can get to the actual spell. Very fiddly person, by my estimations. I think it'll take another two or three days before I can get down to the spell."

"Well, it's time to be done for today," Ryuen said. "I've got an errand to run on the docks, and I'd like you to come."

"Fine," Aya agreed. "Is it okay if I come back tomorrow, sir?" Aya asked the shopkeeper sweetly.

"Certainly, certainly… you weren't bugging anything, after all…" he replied.

Aya gave him one last smile before leaving the shop in Ryuen's wake.

* * *

After a quick search of the town, and after asking several people if they had seen a mysterious woman in a cloak pass through (the answer was always no), the girls were heading up towards the woods.

"I think we should split up again," Yuna said. "It worked last time—"

"Last time, we had a definite way to get out," Paine sharply reminded her.

"If we can't get out, I'll torch the whole god forsaken thing," Rikku said threateningly, pulling out a garment grid and flashing around a Black Mage dressphere.

"No need to be over-enthusiastic," Lulu said.

"_Some _call it that," Paine muttered. "I'd say it's more of—"

"Shut it," Rikku snapped.

"Quit fighting!" Yuna said loudly. "Just stop it right now! I think we're going to be absolutely fine. We've got the radios, and can call for help if we need it. Let's search this woods, and just get it over with. Rikku, you go with Lulu, and I'll go with Paine."

Splitting up Paine and Rikku seemed to be the obvious thing to do after the small squabble they had just had. Yuna figured that Paine was still angry about when Rikku had woken her up, and scared her so thoroughly that she had completely fell out of her bed.

The four girls walked up the main path of the woods, before coming to a fork. One path split off to the right, and one to the left. Rikku and Lulu took the right path (Rikku stuck her tongue out at Paine's back before turning and following Lulu into the woods) and Paine and Yuna took the left path.

As Lulu motored through the woods, Rikku struggled to keep up. "You walk really fast, you know," Rikku commented after a couple minutes of practically running to keep up.

"I want to get this done," Lulu replied flatly. "I hate this woods very much."

"Ooh, why?" Rikku asked, noticing that Lulu had slowed down considerably.

"It's just… eerie," Lulu said quickly. "Besides the fact that it's big. This will definitely be awhile."

"I know!" Rikku said, sounding whiney. "I really didn't want to come here, either."

"It's important, though," Lulu said. "We must find Wakka and Tidus soon, or I'm afraid… that…" her voice trailed off.

"Don't expect the worst," Rikku said consolingly. "They're tough… I'm sure they'll get through this. We'll find them, and they'll be the same as ever."

"I hope so," Lulu replied quietly. "I mean… what would Vidina do without his father?"

"I think Vidina could manage… he wouldn't remember his father, would he? I think you would have a much harder time going without Wakka," Rikku commented.

Lulu stared fixedly at the ground. She hadn't said it; she didn't want to seem selfish. She had thought it, though. She and Rikku walked around until they ran into a small group of three fiends. There was a Red Elemental and two Taromaitis. Rikku donned the Black Mage dressphere, and the fight began.

Lulu cast a quick blizzard spell on the Red Elemental, which died almost instantly. Rikku cast her most powerful fire spell on one of the Taromaitis. It recoiled slightly, and cast Bio on Rikku. A slimy liquid shot up from the ground and completely drenched Rikku. Some of it managed to get into her mouth. The taste reminded her of the way thestalls smelled at Clasko's chocobo ranch. She started coughing almost immediately, and fell to her knees, shaking, as the poison rocked the insides of her body. She could feel her throat closing up, and suddenly, she was unable to breathe…

Several seconds later, she felt an amazing, incredible relief all over her body—she saw Lulu standing next to her, an empty antidote bottle clutched in her hand. She stopped coughing and spluttering, and could suddenly breathe again. Her body didn't feel as weak as it had before—she had stopped shaking, and Lulu was helping her up. "You okay?" she asked Rikku.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Rikku said. She turned to the Taromaiti that had poisoned her, which seemed to currently be gloating, and shot it a threatening glare. "You think you're hot stuff now, but you just wait…" Rikku pulled a garment grid from her pocket, and changed into the Dark Knight dressphere.

The Taromaiti hit her with another Bio spell, but this time, instead of drenching her, it slid off her armor like rain on a windshield. "Hah, poison immunity!" Rikku yelled triumphantly. "Eat that!" she yelled, plunging her sword into the earth as she cast Darkness.

The Taromaiti didn't fall, but floated there menacingly, seemingly angry at Rikku. She reached up and swiped at it with her sword. The monster shuddered backward. Rikku cast another Darkness, and the Taromaiti disappeared into a crowd of pyreflies. "Victory!" Rikku yelled happily. She looked around for Lulu, who had begun to fight the second Taromaiti a little further down the path. Rikku broke out at a run to help Lulu, who was in the middle of a Bio spell at the moment. Rikku quickly administered an antidote to her, and began to abuse the Taromaiti with her sword until it was gone.

"Thanks," Lulu said weakly. "I'd forgotten what that felt like."

"What, poison?" Rikku questioned. "Yeah, it really sucks, doesn't it?"

Lulu began massaging her throat. Apparently, she had felt her throat close up as well. "Yeah, it really does."

Rikku changed out of her dressphere while Lulu collected herself. When they were at last ready to depart, they continued down the path, continually calling Wakka and Tidus's names. They knew it wouldn't do hardly any good, but they kept a small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe they would hear them calling, and give them some indication as to where they were.

"I'm not contented with blindly searching every town in Spira," Lulu suddenly said. "This is becoming a real mystery, and since we found out that it was a mage, they could be anywhere—even somewhere that we can't get to."

"I see what you're saying," Rikku replied. "But… how will we find them then?"

"We find out who took them," Lulu said. "If we can figure it out, then finding them will be that much easier."

"The person who took them must have had a motive," Rikku said thoughtfully. "Do you know any mages that have anything against Wakka and Tidus?"

"No," Lulu replied, racking her brains for any memories of Wakka or Tidus getting on any mage's nerves. "I mean, my entire life, I've only known two mages… one I believe to be dead, and Aya, who… wait a moment… she knew about it right when we mentioned it… oh, Rikku, do you think it could be…?"

"Absolutely not," Rikku scoffed. "Aya knew because she's all around that city every day helping people out. Besides, it was probably a major thing on the news and in the papers and everything. I don't even know how she'd know Wakka and Tidus, and why would she have been trying to help us if it was her in the first place?"

"To clear her name?" Lulu suggested, sounding slightly angry. "Keep us off her trail?"

"Lulu," Rikku said, "it _was not _Aya. She has no motive."

"That we know of," Lulu added on. "She could have some secret grudge against one of the two that we don't know of. Maybe she's angry about Wakka being a good Blitzball player and beating the Luca Goers back at that Blitzball tournament a few years ago, I don't know." (A/N: Let's just say that wayyy back in FFX, the Aurochs beat the Goers.)

"She was a bit younger then," Rikku pointed out. "I doubt a 13 or 14 year old girl would care so much about one loss that she'd kidnap a Blitzer and his best friend."

"Just a thought," Lulu said. "Besides, we don't really know any other mages, so…"

Rikku didn't say anything. She hated that it seemed like all of the Gullwings had some sort of a problem with Aya. She hadn't seemed the least bit suspicious to Rikku. She looked up at the cloudless, blue sky, and wondered if Yuna and Paine were talking about how suspicious Aya was as well…

* * *

Well... like I said, sorry for the length, but I hope that maybe this is getting interesting :D Review, please, and let me know how I'm doin'!

Thank ya muchly,

Lulala


	13. Chapter 13

I think this update might be a little bit shorter XD I hope so! Well, anyway, thank you soooooo much to all who reviewed, I'm really writing this story for you:

**Motet:** Haha XD glad you think so! Thanks for reviewing, as always!

**7w7:** Good to hear :D Thanks for the review!

**Paine3:** You never know what Aya could be up to... you'll get a much better idea after this chapter and next, which have a pretty big scene with her in it... cliffhanger, sorry XD

**DarkAnimePriestess:** Glad you think so :D Keep reading and reviewing, thanks again!

* * *

"Did you notice Rikku sticking her tongue out at you?" Yuna asked Paine warily as they walked along the path.

"Of course," Paine said. "She's so immature."

"She's… I guess I can't say that she's still a kid, because she's not…"

"She likes to think that she is," Paine said, eye twitching slightly. She was evidently trying to mask her anger.

"Anyway, what do you think the chances of finding them here are?" Yuna asked.

"Zero," Paine said. "I'm sure this has been all over the news in Spira, so I doubt they'd be anywhere were civilians go, or someone would have seen. People walk through this woods all the time. It doesn't seem like the ideal place to hide someone."

"Be that as it may, we can't overlook anything," Yuna said with a sigh.

"There is, of course, things that are easy to overlook."

"You're suggesting…?"

"How tall d'you think Aya is?"

"Oh, Paine," Yuna said in disbelief. "You couldn't honestly think that this whole thing has been Aya."

"Well, can you name another mage we know?" Paine asked, staring demandingly at Yuna.

"No," Yuna admitted. "But that doesn't mean it was Aya. She wouldn't have helped us."

"That's what she wants you to think," Paine said irritably. "And if you want to believe her more than me, that's fine."

"It just… doesn't add up, Paine," Yuna said.

"What about this is so difficult?" Paine said, voice growing noticeably louder as her patience began to wear thin. "She sets Wakka and Tidus up in the Blitzball store—she lives in Luca, doesn't she? How convenient, she could have easily been there that day! Then, she tags along with us, leading us _away _from the scene of the crime to that ridiculous basement!"

"I think you're a little sore about that Blitzball trophy we found," Yuna said.

"Don't joke with me!" Paine said sharply. "I'm in the middle of an explanation, here! The point is, she led us away from the scene of the crime!"

"She took us back later, though, didn't she?"

Paine remained silent, an air of defeat about her. She didn't speak until she saw three Red Elementals floating eerily up ahead. She quickly changed into the Black Mage dressphere, cast three quick blizzard spells, and disposed of the Elementals before Yuna could so much as take out a garment grid.

"Listen, Paine," Yuna said. "I think we should be cautious of her, because she may be involved, but… let's try not to talk about it in front of Rikku. I'm sure she's completely convinced of Aya's innocence."

"I know," Paine agreed. "That girl trusts people way too easily."

"I trust Aya," Yuna said, "and I don't think she did it. If she did, she couldn't possibly have acted alone, which is why I say we should be careful. I trust her, but I'm still going to be careful, because you never really know."

"I… agree, I guess," Paine mumbled grudgingly. "But if we _ever _find out that she had something to do with this—"

"You'll kick her butt," Yuna finished, giggling a little.

"That I will," Paine replied in a low, focused voice. Her hand, which had been firmly resting on the hilt of her sword, tightened around it. They rounded a corner, and saw a Queen Coeurl along with two Pairikas, awaiting anyone who happened to be walking through the woods. Paine drew her sword with amazing speed, and charged.

She slashed at the Coeurl, while Yuna donned the Samurai dressphere. Paine continued to swipe at the Coeurl. Yuna's arm muscles tightened as she brought her enormous blade above her head to smack the Pairika down to the ground. It dodged her, emitting a small, gurgled sound of pleasure. She smirked slightly, and quietly cast a Fireworks attack on the Pairikas, and both fell to the ground, twitching slightly. In one motion, Yuna swung her blade around and knocked both all the way across the small clearing where they had gathered and into large tree trunks. Both cracked in half, and disappeared in a wave of pyreflies. By this time, Paine had fully taken out the Coeurl, though she seemed slightly upset that there weren't more around for her to take out.

Yuna and Paine continued down the path, fighting off more Coeurls, Taromaitis, Pairikas, Assassin Bees, Red Elementals, and other assorted fiends, until they came to what was perhaps their worst fear—a dead end.

"It's okay," Yuna insisted to an angry Paine. "We'll just backtrack to one of the other paths that we saw."

"Okay," Paine grumbled with a slight nod. "I guess the whole reason we're checking this place is to see if there's anywhere we don't know about that they could be."

Eventually, Paine and Yuna made their way through all the dead ended paths they could on their side of the forest, before finally stumbling upon the path that led them back to the main path.

"I hope Lulu and Rikku are having better luck than we are," Yuna said sadly, surveying the scratches on her legs from their long trek.

"Doubtful," Paine replied, brushing dirt from her boots.

Lulu and Rikku, consequently, weren't doing much better. They had mostly run into dead ends, before finally, after passing the tree three times, Rikku remembered that there was a secret lookout point on top of the tree. She climbed up the rungs that had been driven into the sides of the tree, and slowly made her way to the top. By the time she was there, she had just enough energy to pull herself up to the top. She collapsed onto her back, breathing deeply in relief. Climbing that tree was no walk in the park. She quickly collected herself, and looked around the small lookout area. She didn't see anything, but she thought it might be good to take a look around the woods from up there to make sure they had checked everywhere. She spotted two moving dots down on the main path. After squinting and wrinkling up her nose, she finally realized that it was Yuna and Paine.

"Yunie, Paine!" she called out.

Neither seemed to notice. Rikku decided to just leave it, and peered around the rest of the forest. She didn't see any paths that she thought they hadn't already been down, and resolved to climb back down, and take Lulu to go find Yuna and Paine.

As Rikku climbed down the rungs carefully, the radio in one of her pockets crackled. "Rikku?" Rikku jumped in fright, and fell the last ten feet of her climb.

"Rikku!" Lulu said, eyes clouded with worry as she hovered over her. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Rikku said, slowly sitting up. She pulled the radio out of her pocket. "You just made me fall majorly," she whined.

"Sorry," Yuna said apologetically. "Are you okay?"

"Barely," Rikku said, standing up and dusting herself off. "I saw you guys when I was up on the secret lookout."

"I thought I heard someone yelling our names," Yuna said. "Anyway, we're heading in your direction now so we can all head up to the temple."

"Kay," Rikku said, inspecting a large cut on the back of her arm. "Meet you at the bottom of the stairs."

Rikku held her radio out in her hand, about to put it back into her pocket, when she had a thought. Yuna had given Aya radio number three… the '3' button seemed extremely tempting… Rikku pressed it, just for the heck of it. "Aya?" she asked expectantly.

The radio crackled almost immediately. "Rikku, oh my god, how are you?"

"Really good," Rikku said, smiling widely despite the disapproving looks Lulu was plainly giving her.

Rikku led the way down the path toward the stairs leading up toward the temple. "What have you been up to?"

"Well… this morning, I went back to the Blitzball store," Aya said. "I tried to trace what was left of that spell that the mage used, and I think it can be done… it will just take a couple days."

Lulu gasped. "Really?"

Aya giggled. "Yeah, Lulu, really. Whoever did it was a little sloppy, but thought of a lot of things to keep people from finding it."

"I see," Lulu said, biting her thumbnail in thought. "Good job, and thank you very much, Aya. Let us know when you have it all figured out."

"Don't forget to be careful," Rikku said, glancing pointedly at Lulu.

"I will, don't worry," Aya said. "I'll call ya when I've got this thing done."

Rikku slipped the radio back into her pocket. "Why'd you call her?" Lulu wanted to know.

"I just wanted to know what she was doing," Rikku said, pulling out ahead of Lulu slightly as they walked quickly towards the stairs.

"Don't tell Yuna and Paine," Lulu said warningly. "Paine won't want to hear it."

Rikku sighed. "I spose. We shouldn't really be fighting, should we?"

When they finally came upon the stairs, Yuna and Paine were already there waiting for them. Together, they all started up the stairs toward the temple.

When Yuna, Rikku, Paine, and Lulu had at last reached the top of the stairs and were at the temple, they found the place to be completely deserted. Yuna pulled out her radio, pressed the button for radio 6, and said, "Buddy? Have we gotten reports of anything funny going on at Kilika Temple?"

"Well, nothing major," Buddy said. "One of their main priests just died, so they're probably all in mourning, and leaving the temple empty in respect or something."

"Now that you mention it, it was quieter and emptier than usual in the port," Paine put in.

"Alrighty then," Buddy said. "Good luck, Gullwings!"

"Does that mean we can't check the temple?" Lulu asked worriedly.

"Maybe," Yuna said. "We might have to come back."

They walked up to the doors, which were shut and locked. "Poopie," Rikku mumbled. "Geez, now this was all for nothing!"

"Well… at least we got the forest done," Yuna offered.

"Hmph," Rikku said, stomping back towards the stairs.

"Buddy? Could you guys come pick us up?" Yuna asked into the radio. "We can't get into the temple."

"Sure thing," he said. "Be there in a minute."

"If Aya were here, she could just bust that door open for us," Rikku grumbled.

"I could bust the door down, too," Paine said, grasping the hilt of her sword. "But let's not, since that would be disrespectful towards the dead priest."

"Fine," Rikku said, sounding whiney.

The airship swooped down upon them moments later. After they all had boarded, they all crowded around to see if Shinra was done with the sphere yet.

"Not quite," he said. "It could still be a couple more days. Like I said, this picture is badly deteriorated, as well as the audio."

"I'm starting to think that someone destroyed this sphere because they didn't want people to see it," Yuna commented.

"I wonder why they left it in the cave if they didn't want people to see it," Lulu mused.

"Let's not worry about that now," Paine broke in. "Let's get to Mushroom Rock Road… it's still early."

"Okay," Yuna agreed. "Buddy… Mushroom Rock Road, please!"

* * *

Aya walked along the docks with Ryuen, glancing around curiously. The docks were a bit more calming than inner city Luca, and though you could hear the ocean pretty much everywhere in Luca, the sound was much more pronounced on the docks. Ryuen was negotiating something with a sailor, presumably for some type of book about magic, while she waited, leaning against the wall of the stadium. She shut her eyes to take in all the sounds and smells of the ocean, seagulls, and fresh, salty air. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and her face gained a hardened look. Her eyes, wide open now, appeared to be staring into space.

_I felt that_, she thought to herself, as her rigid form finally relaxed. _I know I did_. What had she felt, exactly? An enormous flare of magic coming from the basement beneath her feet. One type of spell could have been such an enormous bit of magic that Aya noticed it immediately—a transportation spell. Why was someone transporting into the basement of the stadium? More importantly, who could be casting the spell? Aya knew that there weren't many mages like her left, but in the past week, Luca had seen two transportation spells performed by people that weren't Aya, which was far too many, in Aya's opinion. Ryuen seemed to have noticed Aya's strong reaction to the spell she had felt. He was walking toward her, a large book in tow, and a concerned look on his face.

"What is it?" he asked her. "What made you look completely scared?"

"N-nothing…" Aya said quietly, staring off at the ocean, and not making eye contact with Ryuen. "Nothing at all…"

"Liar," Ryuen said immediately.

Aya's face remained neutral as she stared out blankly at the water. "No, I'm not."

"I want you to tell me now," Ryuen demanded. "If it's got anything to do with those sphere hunters—"

"Drop it," Aya said with a scowl. "Nothing's wrong!"

"Fine," Ryuen snapped. "Let's keep going, I've got one more guy to see."

Aya hung back a little. While Ryuen was bartering with the second guy, Aya slipped around a large crate. She shut her eyes, and lifted her hands above her head quickly. She disappeared, reappearing moments later somewhere in the basement. _It's gotta be around here_… she thought, breaking out at a run down the corridor. If I could just find who it was—

Aya came to a dead stop as she rounded a corner. There stood a tall, hooded figure, holding its hand out and pointing a finger at Aya threateningly.

* * *

Uh oh, evil cliffhanger! XD Haha, don't hold that as a reason not to chuck me a review, folks! Seriously, I'm writing this for all of you, so let me know what you think! 

Thank you for reading,

Lulala


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry about the cliffhanger, everyone XD It was my birthday on the 10th, so I haven't had much time for writing lately... I tried to get a chapter in before the weekend, and here we are! Thank you to all who reviewed:

**DarkAnimePriestess:** Glad you think I'm doing good! Sorry about the cliffhanger XD

**Motet:** Sorry XD I couldn't help it, we hadn't had a good cliffhanger for awhile XD

**Paine3:** I did say that I was a little mean when it came to cliffhangers at the beginning of this fic XD You never know, Aya could do it yet :D

* * *

Aya's eyes widened in fear, and she backed away. She began mumbling something as quietly to herself as she could, but whoever was standing in front of her didn't seem to take kindly to this. "Stop it now, silly girl, or you'll pay for it later."

She suddenly knew that this had to be the person that had transported into the basement. If the person could recognize a much more powerful, mage's version of Ultima being cast…

"You heard me," the voice, which was now distinguishable as a woman's, barked. "You shall not cast Ultima on me. You will pay dearly if you do so."

Aya didn't back away from the threatening words. She stood her ground, and her facial expression hardened from frightened to determined. "Who are you?" Aya demanded.

"In no position to be making demands, are we, Aya darling?" the woman asked tauntingly.

"How… how do you know my name?"

The woman laughed. "My dear, there are only so many short, red headed, incredibly powerful 16 year old mages around."

Aya felt as though she was being made a complete fool. She had come down to the basement, and probably been tricked by this woman, now that she thought about it, and was about to die. Her life began to flash before her eyes as she glared at the woman. Playing with Ryuen as children, running around Luca with her mother and father, playing at the beach with her mother, learning to do her very first fire spell, the first time she ever beat her mother when they were training, going on trips with her mother around Spira to perfect their magic, walking in on her mother's lifeless body…

Her gaze narrowed. "Who are you?" she repeated.

The woman threw back her hood, revealing a pale, beautiful face, shoulder length, curly, honey colored hair, and green eyes that nearly glowed in the dark. Aya gasped a little, and backed away a little. "Taken aback?" the woman asked with a bitter laugh. "Expected me to be an old hag, did you?"

"No," Aya replied.

"You seem awfully scared," the woman commented casually.

"I'm not," Aya said, raising her hands slightly so that they were in a fighting stance.

"Oh, you don't want to fight me, Aya," the woman said. "Don't you know who I am?"

"No, I don't, but I don't think it's possible for me to care less," Aya said snappishly.

"That's no way to talk to someone who could kill you with a snap of their fingers," the woman said.

"You couldn't," Aya said through gritted teeth. "I'm not going down without a fight!"

"I think you should care who I am," the woman said. "Considering, you know, I've met your mother."

Aya's eyes widened. "You better not be lying."

The woman's mouth curled into a smirk. "That's right, I've met her. I was the last person to see her alive, too, I should think… it was I who killed her, after all," she said, sounding almost proud of herself.

Aya felt rage like she had never known before burn inside of her. She so much wanted to tackle this woman and strangle every last bit of life out of her, but she made no move to do so.

"That's right, Aya," the woman said. "You know, I assume, that my name is Kana, then. Your dear brother was right, I am very much alive."

"You… you…"

"Can't talk? I've been watching over you lately. I can't pretend like I haven't taken a liking to you."

"Why'd you…?"

"Why what? Speak full, coherent sentences, please, Aya."

"WHY'D YOU KILL HER!" Aya screamed, tears flowing steadily down her face. She didn't look like someone who would be crying—her face was absolutely contorted with anger.

"Why did I do it?" Kana repeated, still smirking. "I did it because your mother stood firmly against something I was trying to do. I couldn't really have that type of person hanging around, now could I?"

"What were you trying to do?" Aya demanded.

"Psht, you're getting a little touchy," Kana said. "I think perhaps you'd do well with a bit of a warning!" She cast a thunder spell, which Aya easily blocked, using her shield spell. Aya's brow furrowed in confusion; the spell was not strong at all…

"Warning, I said," Kana said. "I wouldn't be seeking to hurt you if it were a warning, but now that you seem to be looking for a fight, I believe we should fight."

Tears were still flowing at a steady pace down Aya's cheeks. "You got it!" she said, bracing herself. She cast a silencing spell almost immediately, and she was extremely surprised to see it working. She took her chance to begin muttering the incantation for Ultima. Kana seemed angry, but knew that trying to attack Aya physically meant running into her shield, which would easily break any human bone it came in contact with. Kana seemed to be having trouble finding herself a Remedy, because Aya got nearly ¾ of the way through the spell before Kana fired a huge ball of fire at her. Aya easily blocked it, threw her hand out in front of her, and cast Demi.

Kana was thrown backward with the force of the spell. Aya took a deep breath, and, gathering all the power into her hands that she could, she shot what was perhaps the largest Flare spell she had ever done at Kana. She was driven by her anger, and that made her all the more formidable.

Kana saw the spell coming, and rolled out of the way. She sprang back up to her feet and fired a Bio spell at Aya. Aya dodged it, and shot and enormous bolt of lightning in Kana's direction. Kana used a shield spell similar to what Aya used to deflect the spell. Aya swore, and slammed her hand on the ground, sending four geysers of water shooting up from the ground at an alarming force.

Kana dodged all of them. "Now, now, all anger and no concentration won't do," she said with a devious smile. She snapped her fingers, and Aya could tell what was coming before it reached her. Kana had cast Doom on her. Aya put up her shield as quickly as she could, and thankfully, it drove the spell away. As Aya was thanking each and every one of her lucky stars, Kana was laughing.

"My, you're much more skilled than even I thought," she said. "You must be getting tired by now."

Aya's eye twitched. She was tempted to tell Kana exactly why she wasn't even close to tired yet, but she didn't, because then Kana would surely take what had been helping her for all these years away from her.

"So you're not," Kana said after a moment of silence. "Well, we can fight until you are, or you can listen to me."

"What?" Aya muttered quietly after a long moment of silence that was enough to drive her crazy.

Kana grinned. "I knew you'd come around."

* * *

Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine fought their way through the crowd of Youth League members crowded around the entrance to Mushroom Rock Road, blissfully unaware of what was currently going on below Luca. The Youth League members swarmed them, barraging them with questions, the most common being, "Are you here to join the Youth League?"

"No, we're not," Yuna said loudly and firmly to the first person who asked. She didn't bother to say it to anyone else; it seemed they wouldn't take no for an answer.

When they were at last past the crowd, Paine said in a low voice, "What a relief, I thought maybe I'd have to strangle one of them."

Rikku giggled. "I don't think they'll be bothering us if they see us fighting fiends… it could just as easily be them, after all…"

The girls checked up and down Mushroom Rock Road, with absolutely no success at all. There wasn't a clue to be had, and they left rather hastily without checking the Youth League Headquarters. "They'd be trying to get us out of here, not asking us to join if they were here," Lulu said coolly at Yuna's suggestion of checking.

Everyone agreed, and they boarded the airship in a matter of minutes, Djose Temple bound. When they arrived, all of the Machine Faction workers scattered, leaving the main area outside of the temple completely deserted. As they approached the temple, Gippal walked out, looking a bit hurried.

"Hello, ladies," he said, smiling. "I couldn't believe it when Lucy came in and just told me that you were here—what can I do for you?"

"We're here to look around in your temple, Gippal," Rikku answered immediately. "Wakka and Tidus are missing, and we need to look for them."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Gippal said, looking a little disappointed. "Top secret project going on right now, so no entry allowed, sorry."

All of their faces fell. "Gippal!" Rikku whined. "Please?"

He shut his eyes and looked away from her. "Not this time, Cid's Girl! That worked when we were younger, but not now!"

Rikku was making big, green puppy eyes at him, and poking out her lower lip slightly. "Pleeeeease?" she asked sadly, intensifying her pleading facial expression.

Gippal at last gave in. "Okay," he said. "But no tellin' anyone what's going on in here, you got me?"

Rikku smiled sweetly. "You got it, Gippal!"

Paine frowned. "We're sphere hunters, it's not like we care what you're doing with machina in there…"

Gippal led them into the temple. "I only said it was a secret because you never know what you girls get up to."

"Just looking for friends right now," Yuna replied. "Seen anyone strange around here lately?"

Gippal thought. "Well, there was that guy, that was actually a girl, and the shady man with the gourd strapped to his head and a patch over his eye—"

Rikku was laughing so hard that Yuna had to almost shout to be heard over her. "I mean, any mages around recently, particularly cloaked, mysterious looking mages?"

"Mages…" Gippal said thoughtfully. "I don't think I could tell ya, I'm not magic."

"Cloaked people?" Yuna asked hopefully.

"Two," Gippal said. "Together, walking in long, brown cloaks."

"Did they take their hoods down?"

"Yeah," Gippal said. "They looked ordinary, but some mages do."

"Male or female?" Lulu asked.

"Guys," Gippal replied easily.

"Not her," Lulu said. "Obviously."

"We're having such bad luck!" Rikku moaned as they walked up the stairs, Gippal hot on their heels.

"We'll find them eventually," Yuna said to Lulu reassuringly. "They've gotta be somewhere in Spira."

There were no fiends left in Djose Temple, the Machine Faction had exterminated all of them from the entire cloister of trials, where the girls plus Gippal searched carefully for any hints of recent human activity. It seemed like there hadn't been anyone down there for quite some time, and the girls left the temple soon after, rather discouraged.

"I bet you Leblanc took them," Rikku said angrily as they walked along the path towards the Moonflow. "We're getting closer to Guadosalam, I think we should check her mansion—"

"It wasn't Leblanc, she's not a mage," Paine replied immediately.

"I forgot," Rikku muttered as they walked along.

"At least we're getting a lot done today," Lulu commented. "It is going to be dark soon, so I think we should stop after the Moonflow."

"I agree," Yuna said. "We've done enough for today."

"No success," Rikku grumbled, grudgingly following the other girls as they turned onto the path that led to the Moonflow.

* * *

Yay, Aya and Kana fighting, how cool! If you thought any of this was good, let me know... even if you thought it was bad, let me know too :D I'm almost at 1,000 hits, so keep reading, folks!

Thank you very much,

Lulala


	15. Chapter 15

Okay, let me start out with saying that I am SO SORRY for taking so long on this! I had written this chapter and almost posted it a couple days ago, but I re-read it and realized that it wasn't very good, so I took the extra time to make it a little better. THANK YOU to all who reviewed, once again! Let's break it down:

**Paine3:** Thank you for the bday wishes :D I'm not dishin' ANYTHING on Aya... you'll just have to wait and see :D

**Motet: **Haha, wouldn't you know it... when you review about loyalty to my fic, I go and leave you guys hanging for at least a week, probably two XD Anyway, what I would have said, had I not gotten lazy with this, was that I have all these ideas in my head, and that I can't wait to put them on paper... but you'll notice the Rikku/Yuna/Lulu/Paine stuff getting a little dry. Don't worry, I've got big plans for them comingup, too!

**DarkAnimePriestess:** Thank ya kindly :D

**7w7:** Kana is a bit of a taunter... like a bully almost. You'll see how cold she can really be, but she didn't want to be too mean to Aya just yet... remember, she had said that she had taken a liking to her... we'll have to see what that's all about. Coming up in this chapter, actually!

* * *

Aya glared at Kana. She had long since stopped crying; she was too angry for that. She felt something hot trickling down her cheek, and discovered a cut beneath her right eye. She wasn't quite sure how to react, considering she had hardly ever been injured in her life, other than the small pink cuts she got from her shield, and almost never to the point of bleeding. She already had cuts up and down her arms, which she was trying to discreetly heal while Kana talked. 

"I remember you asking why I killed your dear mother, Izumi," Kana said. It seemed she had the same facial expression nearly all the time—it was somewhere between a smirk and a sneer. "Well, that's something that is actually the reason why I brought you here today."

"You didn't—"

"Brought, lured, same difference," Kana said in a superior tone. "Anyway, someone very important to me died a few years back, and I had been working on a spell to bring her back to life—"

"That's illegal," Aya said immediately. "My mother knew the rules, no wonder she—"

"Was foolish," Kana interrupted. "She should have known better than to tangle with me. Look where it landed her, why don't you—buried beneath the dirt. She had been interfering with my work, and I couldn't risk losing to her, so I killed her while you and your brother were at school, and your father was away. She was no match for me, none at all."

"YOU SON OF A—"

"Keep calm, and perhaps I shall finish my story faster," Kana cut in. "You're every bit as powerful as she was… even more so, in fact. Don't waste it on helping out the useless, stupid citizens of Luca that do nothing in return for you. Help me perfect the spell, Aya, and we'll bring your mom back, I swear it."

Aya folded her arms stubbornly, while privately shocked that her mother's killer would even approach her with such a proposal. "It all depends on who you'll use the spell on."

"Just my older sister," Kana replied quickly "Anyway, like I said… help me, and I'll help you."

"You killed her in the first place, you horrible—"

"Sure, I killed her then, but I doubt she'd object to using the spell if it brought her back to life," Kana said, shrugging. "You and I both know that she wanted to study magic much further than she got to in the 36 years she lived."

Aya's fists were clenched so hard that a small trickle of blood dribbled out between the fingers on her left hand. She half wanted to look at what she had done to herself, but kept her gaze locked on Kana. "Don't talk like you knew my mother," she snapped. "You knew nothing about her."

"I know that she was only 18 when she married your father," Kana said smugly. For a moment, Aya considered yelling that her mother had married so young because Sin had around, and her mother had been worried, but she held her tongue. "I know that she was 19 when she had your older brother, and 20 when she had you. I know that she went to one of the greatest magic schools there ever was, and the exact number of her magic attribute. I know so very much, I think it would make your blood run cold, really."

Aya tried a stony glare, but almost started crying again. She couldn't help but be upset that Kana knew so much—she was only trying to get to Aya. "So you've done your homework, so what! You know nothing about me," Aya growled. "You know I'm powerful, but any mage could sense my magic from miles away. I could destroy a whole city, if I wanted… it's easy to see. What's more mystifying, is how I couldn't sense your magic until you fired that transportation spell."

"You let your magic run wild, little girl, that's why. You have no inner strength, therefore you cannot control what it does on the inside of you. For a genius, you certainly are a bit stupid, aren't you?" Kana said, mouth twisting into a small, devious smile, making her look positively evil. "You are powerful, yes… If you could play into all the power you really have, you'd perhaps become the most powerful mage Spira has ever seen… if you'd only help me with the spell…"

"Plug that giant hole in your face!" Aya shouted. "If you're going to kill me, just do it!"

"But you won't let me," Kana said in a taunting, fakeish sad voice. She launched an enormous thunder bolt at Aya. For a moment, Aya considered letting it hit her, but she knew it wouldn't kill her, so what was the point in going through the pain? She dodge out of the way, threw her hand out in front of her, and screamed, "BURN!"

An inferno of fire blasted out, engulfing Kana completely. The fireball was so big that it made a huge roaring noise as Aya fought to sustain it, in hopes of severely injuring Kana. When Aya at last let her hand fall back to her side and the fire ceased, Kana was standing there, translucent shield up, looking pleased with herself. Aya noticed gashes all over her arms and face, and smiled to herself—Kana was wearing down.

* * *

As Rikku, Yuna, Lulu, and Paine marched along the path that led to the Moonflow, Rikku continued grumbling while Yuna and Lulu were discussing more likely places to be checking. 

"Well, Bevelle has that huge dungeon," Yuna offered.

"The 100 floors one you were telling me about? How many days do you think it would take to search that one?" Lulu asked, an edge of sarcasm in her tone.

"I guess you're right, we really don't have time," Yuna admitted. "Perhaps the room where Vegnagun was."

"I doubt it," Paine said. "Bevelle's dungeons have anti-transportation stuff on it, I'm sure of it. If that was supposed to be top secret, even if it's gone… and Bevelle is pretty heavily populated… there's not much chance for them to have gotten in undetected."

"The fact that we have no idea who could possibly have done it helps tons," Rikku said bitterly, kicking the ground.

"Let's just keep going, and maybe we'll find something," Yuna said doubtfully.

The girls' walk through the Moonflow was rather peaceful. The fiends seemed to be keeping on the down-low, and the sun was shining brightly. When they finally finished walking through the huge area of land, they were all severely discouraged.

"We're going about this the completely wrong way," Lulu said in frustration. "I wonder…"

"We've checked a lot of places already," Yuna pointed out. "A few more to go. I'm sure we'll find them!"

"What if we've already missed them?" Rikku asked worriedly. "It's not like we have our own private expert of every place like we did in Luca…"

"We could ask Leblanc in Guadosalam," Paine suggested. "It's not the best idea, but I'm sure she knows her way around."

"Or maybe Tromell or those crazy musicians can help us," Rikku suggested.

They walked across the clearing and entered Guadosalam. One of the first people they met on the nearly deserted streets was Tromell himself. "Why hello, ladies," he said warmly. "What brings you back to Guadosalam? Goodness knows you're not the visiting type… so what type of mission are you on this time?"

Yuna smiled. "We're just looking for our missing friends… would you allow us to search your city for them?"

Tromell's brow furrowed in thought. "That's a difficult question. I would really discourage it… if there were any strange activity going on around here, I'm certain the person would be turned in."

Anger blazed behind Rikku's swirly green eyes. "But Tromell, it's our friends! We really need to find them before they get hurt!"

"I'm sorry, but the only place that isn't patrolled regularly by guards is Leblanc's mansion. There is no possible way for anyone to be hidden anywhere—"

The girls were already gone, walking at top speed towards the estranged sphere hunter's house. Rikku was mumbling insults under her breath the whole way, when at last Paine tried to shut her up by explaining the situation to her. "Tromell is trying to be a good leader," Paine said. "He thinks that because of all of his 'reforms', his city and his people are invincible from crime of any type."

"That's stupid," Rikku said, knocking loudly on Leblanc's huge red door.

"I know," Paine agreed. "I mean, it's great that he feels like what he's changed has helped, but…"

"It sucks that he's wrong," Yuna said, sounding more angry than she had in a long time. "Not cooperating is the worst thing that he could have done."

Lulu remained silent, staring at the red door blankly. When Leblanc at last answered, she seemed the same as ever. "Gullwings? What are you doing here, I thought we'd broken off contact for good!"

Paine rolled her eyes, and Rikku almost shoved her fist into her mouth to keep herself from saying something back. "Listen, Leblanc," Yuna began, as nicely as she could. Yuna had a natural gift for sounding nice when really, she was pissed. "Two of our friends are missing, and I was wondering… how much do you know about Guadosalam? I mean, secret passages, stuff like that."

"You think I'd waste my time on something like that?" Leblanc said in disbelief. "Ormi, Logos, and I have better things to do than to go searching for secret passageways!" She began laughing.

"Well, just checking," Yuna said, clearly defeated. She gave Leblanc one last rock hard look before turning on her heel and walking away. The other girls followed suit, and they heard Leblanc's door slam behind them.

"Can you believe her?" Yuna raged.

"This has been a rather unsuccessful visit," Lulu said, sounding a bit disappointed. Her weak, almost limping walk made her look a bit tired; the dark circles under her eyes reinforced it. The past few days had been stressful and draining, and it was starting to take its toll on Lulu—she wasn't in practice like the other girls, not to mention she was older than them.

They walked toward the Thunder Plains, each feeling increasingly discouraged. "Really, we have to find something soon enough," Rikku said. "If we waste another day, I'm betting that Wakka and Tidus will be…" she shuddered.

"Don't say that," Yuna said firmly. "They'd never…"

Lulu's eyes became more focused on the ground ahead of her, and her muscles tensed up. Thankfully, nobody noticed.

* * *

Yup, nothing particularly exciting going on there... XD Review anyway, and I PROMISE things will get better... when they roll into Macalania, you will see :D And that's not giving too much away, except the place where something MAJOR will happen to the four of them! As for Aya... can she beat Kana? We shall see :D 

Thanks muchly,

Lulala


	16. Chapter 16

Hello... here we are again! Two reviews last chapter... less reviews means smaller size. This is just a quick fight scene that will really get things rolling. No Lulu/Paine/Yuna/Rikku till next chapter, since this is just a quick, small update. Thank you to those who reviewed, it means the world to me:

**Musicmaker:** New reviewer :D Aya could end up helping Kana, you never know... I'm not sayin' nothin', heehee. OF COURSE you get a cupcake and cookie :D Thank you very much for reading/reviewing!

**DarkAnimePriestess:** I'm glad that you can't wait :D I shall indeed continue! Thanks for reviewing, again, as always!

* * *

"How is it that you're not even showing signs of fatigue?" Kana demanded angrily, hastily healing her injured arms and face.

"I could tell you," Aya said casually. "Then again, it's a secret my mother took to the grave, and then passed on to me, so…"

"So your awful mother interferes in my plan whether she's alive or dead," Kana said, eyes shrinking into a squintish glare. "Then I guess I'll just have to exterminate her offspring completely! Let's see her try to stop me then!" Kana said, sounding maniacal. Fixing a wide eyed completely deranged look on her face, she charged at Aya, firing a huge fireball at her. Aya crossed her forearms into an 'X' shape, and blocked the spell with ease.

"How is it that you aren't tired!" Kana yelled, shooting multiple status ailment spells, all of which Aya deflected.

"I think maybe I've got the upper hand now," Aya said with a smile as Kana hunched over, panting heavily. "The truth is, I'll never wear out."

"Nobody has an unlimited supply of magic points," Kana growled, digging in her pocket.

"No Ethers for you!" Aya yelled, shooting a thunder spell right at Kana's hand. The second it hit Kana's shield, a bloodcurdling scream escaped her mouth, and she crumpled to the ground. That instant, Aya began mumbling the incantation for Ultima. She didn't need to cast any other spell verbally, thankfully, but with the length and power of this one, she had to. Kana tried to get up, hoisting herself off of the ground a bit before collapsing.

Aya closed her eyes and began to concentrate on her spell. She was so close—just a couple more lines…

Aya suddenly felt her legs get swept out from beneath her—Kana had slipped herself an Ether while on the ground, and was back up and ready to go. "Let's try you on hand to hand combat!" Kana said, laughing.

Aya pulled herself up off of the ground. Before she had time to even think about activating her shield, Kana was throwing punches at her. Aya ducked and moved around to avoid being hit. She eventually got into her mood, and blocked one of Kana's punches with her palm. She kneed Kana in the stomach, and took a shot at her face. Kana fell over backward, and landed in a heap on the ground, panting.

"Seems like I've bested you in both magic and physical fighting," Aya said triumphantly.

Kana was shifting around on the ground, and her gaze fell on the pearl bracelet that was around Aya's ankle. "I've seen that some other place," Kana said weakly. "That bracelet."

"It was my mother's," Aya said. "No doubt you've seen it on her, she wore it every day."

As Kana had been making small talk with Aya, she had secretly administered an Ether to herself. She stood up moments later, shooting a huge ball of fire at Aya.

Aya blocked it, but only at the last moment. Suddenly, she felt her magic points dramatically decrease—one spell shouldn't have taken that much away from her. Aya's shield spell worked that way—the stronger the spell, the more magic points it took for her to sustain it. She had been doing okay on magic points before this hit, but now, she felt herself getting quite a bit lower than she was comfortable with. Then again, getting below half usually bothered Aya, since typically, she wasn't in a position where she needed to keep fighting and not take time to maintain her magic points. Till this point, none of Kana's spells matched the power of this one. Aya's eyes widened.

"Yes, I've been holding back to see what you've got!" Kana shouted, casting another fast blizzard spell, which almost knocked Aya flat trying to block it. "I didn't want to hurt you, but since you're dead set on getting rid of the one person who can give you your mother back, I think I'll kill you and get it over with!"

Aya was watching her, trying to conceal her fear as she felt Kana's magic attribute shoot through the roof. There was no way she could win, and suddenly, she knew it.

"I tried wearing you out, but since you seem to have a secret, we'll just do this the FAST WAY!" Kana shouted, shooting a huge fireball at Aya. She put her shield up, and shut her eyes tightly as she felt the fire burning her forearm.

_Damn_! She thought to herself. _If I could only knock her down, then I could get away_… She winced, cradling her injured arm, covered with pink burns, up next to her stomach as she healed it.

Kana relentlessly shot spells at her without stopping. Aya was getting absolutely pounded, and could find no time to administer an Ether to herself. She got blasted several feet backward from a water spell, which left her with droplets of water all over her body. Her shield had been breaking down and deteriorating, leaving her exposed. She hunched over, panting. Kana ran over, and sunk a punch into her stomach. She kneed Aya in the face, followed by another punch that landed squarely on her cheek. Aya fell over backwards and hit the ground. When Aya pulled herself up, face covered with scratches, she saw Kana launch a spell that Aya had only heard of—it looked like a little wheel of wind, only Kana's wheel was rather large. Before Aya had a chance to block it—she was too busy gaping at it—it hit her square in the stomach.

She was instantly blasted backward. She felt her body being pulled at from all directions as her hair whipped against her face. Seconds later, she smashed into the wall. For one ominous moment, she stayed against the wall, seemingly suspended up against it without anything supporting her, before collapsing face first onto the ground.

* * *

Another cliffhanger... how evil am I? Sorry, sorry... don't forget to review, please, if you liked it! Sorry about having this just be Aya, but... it just worked out this way. Again, I'm sorry if you don't like her much, but... review anyway :D

Thank you very much,

Lulala


	17. Chapter 17

Ahh, exciting! Another chapter :D School's starting soon, so I'll update 1-2 times a week... most likely 1, 2 if I can manage. Depends on if the writing is flowing as well as it has been lately. Thank you SO MUCH! To those who reviewed! Feel happy, you made somebody's day today:

**Motet:** Glad you thought so! I love writing fight scenes, they're fun :D Thanks once again, as always, for reviewing!

**Musicmaker:** Yes, I am evil :D Kana is... okay, not saying anything... you'll see! Of course, there are plenty of baked goods to go around :D

**7w7:** Glad you like it! If you're wondering how it'll turn out now, just wait till later :D

**Paine3:** Haha, yes, curse the cliffhangers! They will return, unfortunately... gotta keep you guys reading, after all!

* * *

Aya's eyes cracked open, and she looked up to find Kana standing over her. "And to think, if you'd only helped me, none of this would have ever happened," she mused in a taunting voice. "You still have a chance: help me with this spell, and I'll let you live."

Aya weakly reached for her pocket, where she knew she had an Ether or two still stored—if she could only get it, she'd feel like a new person, and be at the top of her game again. "I…" she murmured, praying that Kana wouldn't notice her hand cautiously feeling around in her pocket—

Unfortunately, she noticed, and placed a lethal kick to Aya's hand, which could have easily, and probably did, break bones. At that point, Aya was in far too much pain everywhere else to notice her throbbing and considerably distorted hand. "No! Answer me now, or you shall die!"

It seemed there was no other choice—it was literally do or die for Aya. "Fine," Aya replied, softer than a whisper. "Fine."

Kana's face broke into a devilish smile. "I knew you would. Look at it this way: your dear mother shall be among us again soon!"

Aya's eyelids were feeling heavy, but she tried hard not to close her eyes—how was she to know what Kana would do the second she passed out? Kana grabbed the brown belt of pouches that was around Aya's waist, and gave it such a violent tug that it lifted Aya a couple of inches off of the ground, but successfully detached the belt. "I'll just keep this," Kana said coolly. She bent down, and placed her palm on Aya's forehead. Her eyes widened slightly. "My, you are very drained, aren't you? Well, might as well finish the job…" Aya's forehead started to glow green, and she felt the few remaining magic points being sucked out of her. "Precautionary, for now," Kana said.

She lifted Aya off the ground, and threw her over her shoulder. Her arms shot up into the air, and Aya felt the very familiar sensation of being dunked in freezing water, and everything went black.

When she next opened her eyes, she found herself in an unfamiliar looking cave. She, of course, was in an extremely small jail-like cell, laying on a wooden plank with a thin, ratty blanket on it. The wooden plank, which was hanging from the wall like you might see in an old jail in a movie, took up most of the room in the cell. There was a small space that she would be able to comfortably pace back and forth in front of it, but that was all. After surveying the cell the best she could without moving much, she noticed that she was throbbing all over, her head being the worst. She doubted she had ever been beaten up in all her life—she was completely covered in bloody cuts and gashes, colorful bruises, and other types of wounds. On her face, she could feel a tender, swollen spot, which was undoubtedly a gift from Kana. She noticed that one of her pigtails had fallen out, and she resigned to the fact that she had never looked worse in her life. She finally noticed the eerie figure sitting on the outside of her cell—Kana, to be exact.

Aya tried to sit all the way up, but found that she couldn't—magic was such a big part of her that being completely drained of magic points left her literally drained of all energy.

"So tell me," Kana began, voice considerably cold, almost in a tone that suggested that she didn't really care, "how is it that you managed to last so long?"

"I'll… never tell…" Aya murmured in a pained voice.

"You see, though you agreed to help me, it would take but a snap of my fingers to kill you… so I should think that I am in the power position right now," she said, eyes staring unblinkingly at her as one side of her mouth curved upward. It gave her a positively eerie half-smileish expression that made Aya feel a little scared.

"Fine," she muttered angrily. "The… bracelet… mom, she… one magic point…"

"This won't do," Kana muttered. She waved her hand at Aya, restoring enough magic points so that if Kana managed to hit her, it would drain all of them in one shot, but would make it easier for Aya to move and talk.

"Thank you," she said through gritted teeth. "My mother cast a spell on the pearl bracelet. One magic point for every spell but shield and transportation when you're moving more than one person… she couldn't figure a way around either of those two." She discreetly reached for her ankle to see if the bracelet was still there, and was not surprised to find that not only her ankle bracelet, but all of her bangles and jewelry, had been removed. Without it, her wrists felt light and bare… not at all pleasant.

"Clever," Kana muttered, folding her arms across her chest. "But how she managed…?"

"What's this, you can't do it?" Aya said, immediately regretting mouthing off.

Kana's eyebrows shot up. "Treat the person who spared your life that way, eh? You want me to give you a little taster on what'll happen to you if you ever snap at me again?"

Aya's gaze fell to the stone floor. "No," she said in a quiet, barely audible voice.

"Thought not," Kana said. She pulled a sphere out of one of her pockets. "Hmm, now, I think you might find this interesting," she said, not noticing that Aya wasn't paying attention, but was inspecting her many cuts and injuries on her right arm. Her left hand was extremely sore, and she was certain that that was the one that Kana had broken. She was also certain that Kana had healed it when she had passed out, since Aya could hardly work a spell with a broken hand.

"I said, you may find this interesting," Kana repeated more loudly and sharply, catching Aya's attention at last.

"What's that?" Aya said absently.

Kane glared angrily. "Just watch," she demanded, beckoning towards the sphere. It suddenly turned on, showing a path leading from the Thunder Plains into Macalania Woods. Walking along the path was…

Aya slid off the wood plank and feel to her knees on the floor, face pressed against the bars, hoping to get a better look at the sphere. "What are you showing me this for?"

Kana grinned in a twisted manner, as she always did. "I'm showing you this because I'm going to use one of my newly perfected spell on these friends of yours."

Aya's eyes widened. "NO!" she yelled. "You have to leave them alone!"

"I don't have to do anything!" Kana yelled angrily back. "Besides, I shall only mess with their heads a bit… no need to worry, I won't be killing any of them… today… if I can help it. When I do… it will likely be in person." Kana finished her sentence speaking from behind gritted teeth, and Aya vaguely wondered why she would have something against one of the completely innocent four girls.

* * *

Yuna, Lulu, Rikku, and Paine were walking quickly along the path, blissfully unaware that a mage was about to completely mess up their trip thorough Macalania.

Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine had had a very rough time through the Thunder Plains. They had been forced to wait out a particularly bad storm at the Travel Agency. They hadn't even bothered calling the airship… it would have been too risky to bring the Celsius close to the storm. When they at last made it across the perilous plains, without finding anything, of course, they came closer and closer to Macalania. So close, in fact, that it was driving Rikku absolutely insane.

"Can we be done searching after this?" she whined. "My legs hurt!"

Paine rolled her eyes, but didn't comment.

"You said yourself that time was running out," Yuna softly reminded her. "I think we should keep going."

Paine made a small noise of agreement, while all Lulu could manage was a nod. Rikku couldn't help but groan, even though she wanted to find Wakka and Tidus.

At the edge of Macalania Woods, they all decided to have a rest. After all, if Rikku wouldn't shut up about how tired she was, it would be hard to get through at least another two places with her babbling. It was best to appease her than to argue and have to deal with her disruptive whining for the rest of the day. After resting, they continued, completely unaware of the peril that would await them the second they stepped across the threshold into the woods.

* * *

"What are you going to do to them!" Aya demanded, watching her friends' progress in the sphere that Kana had provided.

A smile played at Kana's lips. "A new tactic I've developed. Using magic, I can develop an illusionary Macalania Woods, which all four of them will easily be sucked into. The illusions will be either as pleasant or as terrifying as I desire…" she smirked.

Aya rested her head in her hands, willing herself not to attempt to escape—it would only injure her more than she was already hurt, and perhaps give Kana reason to kill her. It took all the strength she had and then some to keep her from transporting herself out of wherever she was.

Aya raised her head and gazed at the sphere, eagerly watching her friends. She could hear Rikku shrilly complaining, but she couldn't make out the words. The tone, however, was unmistakable. "Why are you doing this to them?" Aya asked Kana, voice quivering with anger. "They're looking for their friends, and you're doing this for your own SICK AMUSEMENT!"

Kana's eyes narrowed almost immediately. "Sick amusement? I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my illusion. Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."

"What the—?"

"That's enough questions," Kana snapped. "Tomorrow, we shall begin work on the spell. I will have complete control of your magic points. You shall not at any point have more than I will you to."

"Great," Aya grumbled sarcastically.

"If you attempt to transport outside of the ward I have placed on this cell, you shall be decimated, so don't try. Watch me crush your friends' lives in the palm of my hand, weak little girl."

* * *

My favorite line this chapter: "I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my spell." Haha XD Don't forget to review, folks! 


	18. Chapter 18

Super loooooooooong chapter this time, sorry about that! I was doing good for a couple too, keeping it short... first day of school today, so expect the updates to be a little less frequent, but not much, since I'll be on the computer anyway. I have no self discipline :D THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all who reviewed! You make me happy:

**Motet:** Hah, I'll stick a little Wakka and Tidus in just for you... heck, it's high time they make an appearance anyway :D Thanks, as always, for reviewing!

**Musicmaker: **Glad you're hooked, cuz I'm hooked on writing it! I hope it's not the baked goods that's hooking you, anyway XD Thanks for the review!

**DarkAnimePriestess:** As long as you're reading :D Thanks for reviewing!

**Paine3:** Worry not, Paine3! You shall see :D

* * *

When Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine at last arrived in the first section of the eerily quiet Macalania Woods, they all stood in a row, surveying the scene, each trying to devise a strategy. The woods was a big place to tackle, and they had to make absolutely certain that they got every place.

"Split up," Paine said immediately.

Rikku whimpered. "Do we have to?"

Paine glared at her. "Do you want to get this done?"

"Yes."

"Then yes."

She groaned. "Really?"

"I am not going with her," Paine said flatly.

As Yuna pleaded with them to stop fighting, Lulu was concentrating on a sound that was like a far away whistling… almost like wind.

"Guys, do you hear that?" she asked, slightly loudly to ensure that she would be heard over Rikku and Paine's bickering.

Everyone suddenly fell silent as they tried to listen to the mysterious sound. "It sounds like wind," Yuna finally said quietly after a few moments.

"That's strange," Paine murmured. "This woods is nearly always silent."

"Something is wrong here," Rikku agreed, sounding completely serious, which was a very rare thing.

* * *

Back in Aya's cell, she was screaming her head off, even though she was certain that nobody could hear her. "STOP IT! GET AWAY, RUN!" she yelled at the sphere, shaking with rage. There was no way that Kana could do this to them—how evil could she possibly be!

Kana looked utterly pleased that Aya was so shaken up. "Enjoying the show?" she asked with a cold, cruel laugh.

"YOU LET THEM GO RIGHT NOW!" Aya screamed, placing her face as close to Kana as the bars would allow.

"Just be quiet, or I shall silence you," Kana replied in an almost gleeful tone. "Watch, now."

* * *

Suddenly, the same type of wind spell, only considerably bigger, tore its way right into Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine before any of them had a second to react. Rikku's eyes clamped themselves shut as she whirled around. The minute she felt her feet being picked up off of the ground, she knew that her chances of surviving here little or nothing—and it scared her to tears. The last thing she remembered was a sinking feeling in her stomach as the wind stopped abruptly. She passed out, and crumpled to the ground.

At last, after what seemed like a rather long time, Rikku stirred. "Did anybody get the number of that train?" she mumbled, attempting to pull herself up off of the ground. The best she could manage was to sit up, and when she had, she instantly wished she would have just stayed laying down with her eyes shut. Lulu, Paine, and Yuna were gone.

Surely, they hadn't left her behind on purpose—even Paine wasn't that mean. She vaguely wondered how long she'd been out cold for. Rubbing the back of her head, she stood up, and looked around. At least she was still _somewhere _in Macalania Woods. What had that freaky wind thing been anyway? It had caught them so quickly that she hadn't even had time to scream. She closed her eyes, and thought back to before she had passed out.

"A whistling sound," she murmured after a couple minutes. She opened her eyes and stood up. "Better find them," she said, digging around in her pocket for a radio. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat—her radio was nowhere to be found.

"Whoever frickin' left me here did a frickin' good job making sure I'd never get out!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping somebody would hear her. Feeling angrier than she had in a very long time, she marched irritably down the path, eyes shifting around constantly for any sign of life at all.

Just as she knew it would, the woods remained eerily silent and barren of all life forms—even fiends. If she could only find Yuna, Lulu, and Paine! She was certain that each one had a good sucker punch coming their way after playing such a completely NOT funny joke on her. "You jerks can come out now, you totally got me!" she said loudly, spinning around so that she could get a clear view of all around her. She stopped walking, and continued twirling around, trying to keep everything in view. "Yeah, you heard me—you got me, so come out now, and let's get going!" Rikku tried again.

Nothing responded to her half-pleading voice, save a small echo.

"Poopie," she grumbled, violently kicking the ground. "Guess I better get walking, then, if I'm gonna make it to civilization by night fall."

Rikku knew good and well that the next city was Bevelle, and that it would be all too easy for her to find some place to stay there—if her body would only quit throbbing every time she took a step! She hunched over a little, trying to shut out the pain. She knew she would be done for if a fiend attacked…

* * *

Aya sat in her cell, face still pressed against the bars, watching Rikku trudge along, while trying to keep herself from crying. Kana seemed more interesting in watching Aya than Rikku. Suddenly, she stood up, and said, "I think we may have some other guests here that have some interest in seeing this, as well." She walked hurriedly out of the room.

Aya didn't care—she couldn't rip her eyes away from the struggling Rikku. She knew that Rikku would be trying to get to the next city—but in Kana's illusion, she doubted the woods ever ended. "Stop walking, Rikku, and you won't get hurt," Aya murmured. She at last stop watching Rikku, and shut her eyes to take a moment to look at the spell. "This will be hard to break," she moaned quietly after several minutes. "Just stop walking, Rikku!"

Suddenly, Kana walked back into the room, two people that Aya didn't recognize in tow. Both seemed extremely interested when they saw Rikku in the sphere. Kana tossed them in a cell that was across from Aya's, and left the room, claiming that she needed to concentrate on the spell. The two men looked completely confused, so Aya gave talking to them a try.

"How'd she get you guys?" Aya asked them softly.

"Dunno," one of the guys said. His orange hair was sticking up all over the place, and he had a heavy accent. He was wearing something that looked like a Blitzball uniform. Aya knew nothing about Blitzball, of course, so she couldn't be sure. "I remember her making everything in the Blitzball store in Luca fly everywhere—and next thing we know, we're here."

"We don't even know _why _we're here," the other guy added. He had blond hair and was wearing some yellow boots that stood out very clearly to Aya.

Suddenly, something clicked in Aya's head. _Blitzball store in Luca…? _"Oh my god, you're Wakka and Tidus!"

The blond guy's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah… how'd you know?"

Things made even less sense to Aya now that she knew that it had been Kana that had kidnapped them all along… but why?

**_FLASHBACK _**

_"I don't have to do anything!" Kana yelled angrily back. "Besides, I shall only mess with their heads a bit… no need to worry, I won't be killing any of them… today… if I can help it. When I do… it will likely be in person." Kana finished her sentence speaking from behind gritted teeth, and Aya vaguely wondered why she would have something against one of the completely innocent four girls._

…ooo…

_Aya raised her head and gazed at the sphere, eagerly watching her friends. She could hear Rikku shrilly complaining, but she couldn't make out the words. The tone, however, was unmistakable. "Why are you doing this to them?" Aya asked Kana, voice quivering with anger. "They're looking for their friends, and you're doing this for your own SICK AMUSEMENT!"_

_Kana's eyes narrowed almost immediately. "Sick amusement? I will not deny that I shall indeed be amused as I watch them fail against my illusion. Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."_

**END FLASHBACK**

"Well… I ran into your friends, Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, and Paine in Luca… that's where I live… when they came there looking for you guys," Aya explained.

"They're looking for us, ya?" the orange haired guy repeated. "This isn't good… they're bound to get hurt against that woman!"

The blond guy nodded. "This is bad, Wakka… what are we going to do?"

"There's nothing we can do," Aya said sadly. "I can't beat her like this, my magic points are gone, and so are all of my accessories."

"What's your name, anyway?" the orange haired guy asked her.

"Aya," she replied.

Wakka and Tidus quickly introduced themselves, even though she already knew who they were. "What's going on with this sphere?" Tidus asked, eyeing Rikku worriedly.

"Kana has developed an illusion spell… she cast it on them, and now, they're lost in Macalania Woods," Aya explained. "I've had a little look at the spell… not a good one, of course, she's got wards up… but it's going to be very hard to break."

Wakka and Tidus eyed each other worriedly. "Now we have to do something."

"One toe out of line, and she'd kill you with a snap of her fingers," Aya reminded them. She bit her lip in thought. "Do you even know why she kidnapped you?"

"No," Wakka answered immediately. "We've asked her loads of times, but she don't say more than one word to us at a time."

"Do you recognize her at all?"

"Nope," Wakka answered.

From what I remember, I think it's safe to say she has something against one of the girls in the woods right now…

_**FlASHBACK **_

_"Unfortunately enough for you, there is a much deeper reason as to why I am doing this."_

**_END FLASHBACK _**

"I think…" Aya began uncertainly. "I think she's holding some kind of grudge over one of them."

"This is a little extreme for just any grudge," Tidus said, gesturing at the cell around him. "Besides, how do we tie in to all of this?"

"Good question…" Aya said, biting her thumbnail. "Wait… you're Lulu and Yuna's boyfriends!"

"So it's got to be one of them," Wakka said with a nod. "Makes sense, ya?"

"Yeah," Aya replied absently.

* * *

Rikku struggled on, feeling more pain with each step she took. She had already figured that that wind was no ordinary wind, but couldn't figure out why it kept hurting. She had healed herself several times, with hardly any results. She continued walking, deep in thought, trying to ignore her head, which was sufficiently throbbing. Suddenly, she heard large footsteps and what sounded like claws scraping the ground coming from behind her. A huge fiend that she had never seen before was running after her! It bore certain resemblance to a werewolf, and howled at Rikku maniacally as she started running down the path. She screamed as it started to gain on her. Urging her feet to go faster, she jumped over a fallen tree, and proceeded to trip over her own feet. She pulled herself up, left side covered in scratches from the ground, and tried to put some distance between herself and the werewolf-like fiend. She had no idea where she was—this part of the woods didn't look at all familiar to her. She continued to run until, predictably, she was trapped at a dead end, almost as if somebody had planned it.

She whirled around to face the fiend, and quickly selected the Dark Knight dressphere. She changed as fast as she could manage, and the second she was finished, the werewolf charged her. She held her sword out in front of her threateningly as the werewolf snapped at her with its huge, white teeth. She cringed as it spit on her face, and swung her sword at its stomach. It left a gash there, but the werewolf didn't seem at all bothered by it. It continued lunging at her and growling fiercely, sufficiently scaring the crap out of her.

She hit it with a darkness attack, but immediately felt the after-effects—something in that wind had fully messed her up, and she decided it was better not to suck out any more of her own energy. She tried a bio spell, which it dodged with ease. The werewolf attacked her almost like a human—it stood on its hind legs, while attacking her with its front. It eventually got a good hit in on her shoulder—she could have sworn she felt it pop out for a second before sliding back into place—that sent her flying across the clearing. She couldn't believe a wolf could punch her with such force—she ended up against a tree, panting and holding her shoulder. If she didn't come up with a plan soon, she'd be toast…

* * *

Oh geez, Rikku is in a life threatening situation (again!) and Wakka, Tidus, and Aya are just starting to figure things out! What happened to Yuna, Lulu, and Paine anyway? In next chapter, you will perhaps see at least one of them fighting the illusion... can they win? Read to find out, and don't forget to review :D

Thank youuuuuuuu!

Lulala


	19. Chapter 19

Back again, with a new chapter :D This will be wrapping up in... 10 chapters MAX, I'd say, probably less... don't hold me to that, though. There are LOTS of plots that I still need to wrap up in here before the climax, soo... you shall see :D THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who reviewed, you make my story worth writing:

**Motet:** I am going to remain EXTREMELY tight-lipped about this XD Don't want to ruin the surprise. Thanks, as always, for reviewing :D

**Paine3:** If you've figured it out, I absolutely APPLAUD you! Make sure you let me know if you were right when the time comes around!

**Musicmaker:** No, Tidus and Wakka aren't hurt. They're hostages, so her main goal is to keep them alive--as much as she'd like to beat em up XD Hostages are no good if they're dead XD

**DarkAnimePriestess:** Still glad you're enjoying :D

New thing at the end of this chapter... preview for the next one! Enjoy :D

* * *

Lulu, who had landed somewhere on a soft pile of a snow like substance, was passed out. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and she shot up, whirling all around in search of enemies. When she realized she was alone, she let out a scream—where had the other three girls gone! She got up and began pacing frantically.

"Where are you?" she asked under her breath. "Why would you leave me…?" Her eyes narrowed.

She started down a random path—she wasn't sure where she was or where she was going, but she was getting away from wherever she had just woken up. _What was that_? She asked herself. _I remember that noise, and then getting knocked out… what is going on here_?

She could feel a bit of pain pretty much everywhere, and wasn't sure why. _Whatever spell that was… yeah, it was a spell, I'm sure of it… whatever it was, it's well done—I'm still hurting, and I will be for quite some time. It feels like whoever has done this has put some sort of… cap… on my abilities… I can do them, of course, but only to a certain extent…_

This right about then stopped making sense to Lulu as she tried to analyze her whole body all at once, not to mention the eerie feeling she had inside of her. The path in front of her, she suddenly noticed, as incredibly overgrown with crystal pieces. She glared at it for a moment before rolling up her sleeves and charging in. She knew her spells would have no effect on these, so it was best to just keep going. As she fought her way through, she heard a large ripping sound—her dress now had a huge rip in it down the side. She scowled at it, which earned her a rather large scratch on her arm from one of the crystals, and she continued on.

Several minutes later, she was still pulling her way through—though she was paying the price. Her hair was completely down, undone, and messy, with her headdress nowhere to be found. Her dress had several more rips in it, not to mention scratches and cuts all the way up her legs, arms, and face. She stopped for a moment, and with one gigantic tear, ripped a huge torn section of her dress off. "Make travelling easier," she mumbled to herself, tying it around a particularly bad scrape on her calf. She brushed her hair off of her sweat-covered face, and continued on. "This can't go on much longer," she said, sounding much more confident than she felt.

When it didn't stop, it started to make Lulu wonder… how would there have been such a long patch like this, and nobody knew about it? Normally, the people who lived around Macalania would try to at least cut enough of this back to make it so you could walk through, but… this was just too weird. It had been right on a path, after all—she could still see the path beneath her tired, bruised feet, one of which was now missing a shoe—she wasn't even certain when she had lost that. Her dress had been severely shortened, now to a length a little above her knees. One of her dress sleeves had been ripped clean off. Every time she thought she was about to give up, the crystals would begin to thin ever so slightly, and she would eagerly continue on—only to be disappointed. Almost as if someone had designed this to keep her from quitting until she physically couldn't bring herself to continue.

"If this is a test… I'm going to make it through!" she muttered determinedly. Her thoughts went back to the odd wind that had swept her to wherever she was in the first place. She wondered what had happened to Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. A crystal stabbed into her hand as she tried to pull herself through a particularly small gap. She winced in pain, but quickly got a better hold on the crystal and pulled herself through. She ripped another small piece off her dress and wrapped it around her hand. At times, it came in handy to have such a long dress with so much fabric. At least it would keep the blood from seeping everywhere. After a moment of walking, she clutched her suddenly numb arm—and her vision began to blur.

_No, _she thought. _It won't end here… not this way… nobody will ever find me… how would a wind like that come and sweep us away into completely different places. There is no way there could be a growth like this in the real Macalania, I've been walking for hours. Could this be…_?

* * *

As Aya, Wakka, and Tidus were all watching Rikku take on the werewolf fearfully, they saw her get slammed into the tree, each letting out a noise of anguish. Suddenly, the sphere glowed blue, and they could no longer see Rikku. This time, they saw…

"Lu!" Wakka cried out, seeing Lulu lying on a snow bank. None of them knew how long they stared, transfixed, at the struggling Lulu.

"Aya, you've got to break this illusion," Tidus said to her fervently.

"I can't," Aya replied sadly. "She took all my magic points, except for what's sustaining me, and besides, I'm hurt, can't you see?"

"Try!" Wakka demanded of her. "You at least gotta try, ya?"

"You don't understand," Aya said, "if I seriously over-exhaust my magic points, it could become a lot more serious… I could die."

Wakka and Tidus fell silent, watching Lulu fight through the crystals in anguish. Aya couldn't bring herself to watch any longer—she stared at the ground blankly, not thinking anything other than, _If I only had my belt_.

Just as they saw Lulu clinging to a rock, looking tipsy, the sphere turned blue again, which they took as shifting to another girls' situation within the illusion. This time, it was focused in on the back of Paine's head. She was lying face down in the middle of one of the frozen ponds. It had seemed almost on cue that she had stirred, just like all the other girls.

* * *

"What the--?" she uttered, rubbing the back of her head and pulling herself into a sitting position carefully.

She suddenly remembered the whistling of the wind, and narrowed her eyes. She knew that the other girls weren't anywhere around—the question was, why? As she tried to pull herself into a standing position, she suddenly noticed—she was completely and utterly surrounded by fiends.

Smiling slightly, she drew her sword with vigor, and demanded loudly to the fiends, "Come on, come get me! I'm ready for you!"

The fiends, which were mostly smaller versions of the werewolf-like fiend that Rikku was fighting, all obliged. They charged in at her all at once, each roaring. Paine tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword, and did a quick spin, knocking out at least 6. Swung her sword at another's tail, completely severing it, smacked one in the head, and took out at least 10 more using various techniques. Suddenly, she was panting, drenched in sweat, and the fiends hadn't quit at all. If anything, they were coming at her with more rigor than they had originally. She tried to take a moment to catch her breath, but the fiends wouldn't allow it. She continued beating them around until she was certain she had killed at least 50—and yet, they kept coming. Confused was an understatement for the way Paine felt—not to mention the fact that she swore someone was inside of her, tearing her muscles from her bones. She knew that she was never ordinarily in this much pain, but couldn't think of anything that may have caused it.

All she knew was, combined with the pain that was now spreading to everywhere, she was running out of energy—she wouldn't be able to face many more fiends before…

She shook her head abruptly. There was no way she would _ever _faint from fighting _too much_… She hunched over, sword stuck into the ground, leaning on it. This wasn't the end… no, it couldn't be…

* * *

Yuna's awakening was much more rude than the other three girls'—she awoke as she was about to fall from a stiflingly high ledge, which was barely large enough for her to retain a decent foothold. She hadn't even ever truly been knocked out—her eyes had shut for a moment, but opened immediately when her feet had slammed into the crystal of this ledge. She was clinging on, with her back to a gigantic crystal gorge—jagged crystals pointing upward on the bottom, of course, to 'break her fall'—she grabbed the nearest crystals sticking out of the wall behind her, and hung on for dear life…

It was after she was feeling like she wouldn't fall that she realized—her friends were nowhere to be seen. Had they already fallen to their deaths? She blinked tears from her eyes—she had to concentrate and keep calm if she was ever going to get out of this. She couldn't risk letting go to get out a garment grid—besides, she was pretty sure that even the berserker dressphere wouldn't help her scale this stuff. _I guess I'm stuck here until I come up with a plan_, she thought to herself, desperately trying to find something—anything—that would help her to climb her way out.

* * *

It was then that Aya, Wakka, and Tidus began hatching a plan for their escape—or Aya's, anyway, until she could bring reinforcements. Kana, all the while, had drastically underestimated the amount of concentration needed to trap four separate people in illusions all at the same time, and was sitting in another chamber in the mysterious cave, eyes shut in concentration, with pages of notes on the spell sitting out in front of her. She remained blissfully unaware of the mutiny that was going on in the jail cells…

* * *

Hopefully that wasn't too cliffie--sorry if it was XD So, what about Rikku? When we last left her, she was getting the beating of her life--can she beat the werewolf and stay alive? Will Paine fight for so long that she can't fight any longer? (that's the major shocker here! XD) Can Yuna manuever her way off that ledge? Will Lulu make it through the treacherous cluster of sharp crystals? What about Wakka, Tidus, and Aya's escape plan? Read the next chapter to find out, and don't forget to review :D

Preview of next chapter:

Lulu pressed the palms of her hands together, summoning nearly all the magic she had, trying to send it to a certain mage in the form of a message. _Aya_... she thought desperately. _Help us_!

Back in her cell, as they were watching Yuna clumsily attempting to get off of the ledge, Aya's eyes widened as she suddenly felt a powerful magical presence calling her name. _Lulu_... "Guys," Aya said urgently, "Lulu is trying to communicate with me."

Thank you,

Lulala :D


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20, people :D Extra long because of the wait, I'm really sorry! I've been busy with school lately, and working some too. I'm trying so hard to bring this to a close, but... we'll see :D Thank you so much to all who reviewed! You really make my writing worthwhile:

**Motet:** Worry not, it's about to get more suspenseful :D Thanks, as always, for reviewin!

**Musicmaker:** I HOPE they get out of the frying pan... XD What am I talking about, I know what's going to happen XD

**Paine3: **I purposefully made it hard to guess, so I will be VERY excited for you if it turns out you have it :D

**theweirdperson: **Yeah, I realized after posting it that I was really unclear about the scream... it was more of a frustrated, URGGG type scream... it was horrible, sorry about that XD

**DarkAnimePriestess: **Whoooo :D Thanks again for reviewing!

Enjoyyyyy :D

* * *

Rikku managed to pull herself off the ground. She was panting heavily, sweating badly, and her eyes were scanning the area wildly for any sort of escape that there could have been. Her back was absolutely pulsing with pain—that had been a pretty big tree and an awfully hard hit, after all. The only exit she saw was the one she came in through, which was currently blocked by the werewolf.

The wolf charged at her, and she became momentarily paralyzed with fear. She had no idea how she was possibly going to get out of this. The werewolf tried to punch her in the face, but she blocked it with her forearm. Thankfully, she was wearing the Dark Knight armor, or she was certain all of the bones in that part of her arm would be broken. She felt dismayed that the armor hadn't helped at all when she had been knocked back against that tree. In fact, she was certain she was bleeding somewhere or another. She was tired to the point where she couldn't hardly bring herself to move any more.

She had no idea what had happened to her friends, but deep down, she prayed that one of them—heck, she'd take anybody at this point—would come to save her from what was certain… well… she didn't even want to think it. All she knew was, by now, even if she could manage to get away… she wouldn't get far. As she continued to block the wolf's blows, she gradually got more tired. Pretty soon, she was hunched over, on her knees, while the wolf stood several feet away, eyeing her with a gloating look on its face, as if to say, "I am about to win this battle."

Rikku's eyes drooped—this wasn't going to end this way. She reached into her pouch, and pulled out her last super potion. After using it, she felt almost new—it was amazing what those things could do. She quickly decided to try a new approach with the werewolf—the Berserker Dressphere, to be exact. She changed into it quickly, and crouched down into a fighting stance, ready to attack. It was do or die, and this was her last chance—if she didn't do, she'd die.

* * *

Paine was still beating off the wolves that were constantly attacking from all angles. She had lost count nearly half an hour ago—but she was certain that the death toll had to be into the triple digits, at least. There was no way she would have ever though she could kill enough fiends—but now, she was almost wishing she never saw another fiend in her life—almost being the key word. She was getting tired, and found the wolves getting closer to attacking her with every lunge they took. Her guard was getting down, and she knew if she couldn't get out soon, she'd be hurt badly—or worse. As she tried with immense difficulty to push this thought out of her head, a wolf sunk its teeth into her leg. She felt it give way, and found herself on the ground, in the middle of a frozen lake. She figured she'd give healing her leg a shot—she knew the spell, but wasn't nearly as good at it as Yuna.

She was surprised how much it took out of her to heal it—it could have been that she was just over-tired. She hadn't done a good job healing it, and could hardly stand. Another wolf got her arm in a vice-grip like hold between its jaws, and she had to use her sword to pry it off before slaughtering it on the spot. She winced as she felt the blood rushing freely through the open wound… there was no way this was happening. She collapsed to the ground almost immediately, sword stabbing deep into the ice.

Suddenly, the ice cracked. Paine felt like jumping up and praising the heavens for her amazing luck. The wolves wouldn't be able to get her if she managed to get on a chunk of ice without any of them on it. Fortunately, the area she was kneeled on split off from the wolves, and she let out a sigh of relief—she was safe. Her vision started to get fuzzy, and she realized that she should try to heal the bite on her arm. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't—she figured she was all out of strength. At her absolute limit. She felt suddenly dizzy, and a wolf made a spectacular leap over onto the chunk of ice that Paine was floating on. Paine gasped, and tried to pull herself up. Wincing, she realized for the first time ever—it was over. And she had lost.

* * *

Yuna still hadn't managed a way off her ledge. She couldn't even understand how she had ended up here! She had tried looking for footholds of some kind to climb up, but all of them were much too small to support her weight. She had even tried making footholds by hacking at it with a thief blade, and with claws from the Berserker Dressphere, but nothing had worked. As she stood there, clinging as close to the wall as she could, she suddenly heard wings flapping. Praying to God that it wasn't a fiend, she quickly turned her head in the direction of the noise to see what it was. Hundreds of bird like fiends. Swarming at her. She was pretty much stranded on a narrow ledge over jagged rocks hundreds of feet below her.

The birds began whizzing by her, cutting her skin each time their beaks ran along it. She screeched in pain the first time one got her—it almost felt like a bee sting. Eventually, she got used to it. She kept to the wall as best she could, but almost came close to falling several times due to the birds. After what felt like hours, she was certain she had scratches absolutely everywhere. The cloud of birds was so thick that she couldn't see anything but birds at all anymore. She tried to keep her eyes tightly shut as much as possible—watching her own flesh get ripped open wasn't exactly pleasant. She winced every time a bird cut her, now—it hurt more and more each time she got hit. They weren't bleeding all that badly, but getting cuts over cuts hurt a lot more than you would think. She felt her energy being drained from her as she fought to keep hold of the cliff. She tried to reach a garment grid, but one of the birds seemed to notice, and sliced the belt that had her pouches on it clean off. She watched in despair as her only hope of escape fell to the jagged rocks below.

One bird suddenly took a particularly good clip at her ankles, and sliced right through her boots. Catching her completely off balance, she slipped, but managed to grab the ledge that she had been standing on a moment ago with her hand to prevent herself from falling to her death. Now, she was dangling from a cliff, with no way to go but down.

* * *

Aya, Wakka, and Tidus were interrupted many times by being afraid for their friends. Each got closer and closer to dying without it actually happening, and if one of them couldn't get to Macalania and break this up soon… Aya couldn't tell if the illusion would actually be deadly, but she didn't want them to suffer more than they had to.

They were currently watching Paine on the sphere right now. They all listened worriedly as they tried to plan Aya's escape. Kana was still in a room somewhere, leaving them completely alone, so as long as none of them used any magic, Kana would never know…

* * *

Lulu slouched over, and eventually fell backward onto the ground. She resisted the pull of the ground and remained sitting upright, feeling increasingly dizzy every second. She used a small amount of her remaining magic to give herself some energy, and it was at that moment that she had a thought. Her teacher when she had been growing up had taught her how to send messages by magic, hadn't she…?

She shut her eyes, trying to remember. Her teacher had mentioned that if you focused your magic enough with a certain feeling to a certain person, if the person was good at recognizing magic, they could recognize what you were trying to tell them. Lulu didn't even take a moment to think about whether it worked over long distances or not.

Lulu pressed the palms of her hands together, summoning nearly all the magic she had, trying to send it to a certain mage in the form of a message. _Aya_… she thought desperately. _Help_!

Back in her cell, as they were watching Yuna clumsily attempting to get off of the ledge, Aya's eyes widened as she suddenly felt a powerful magical presence calling her name. _Lulu_… "Guys," Aya said urgently, "Lulu is trying to communicate with me."

"What?" Wakka and Tidus said together.

"She's sending her magic to me, like a message," Aya answered, hastily shutting her eyes and pressing her palms together. "I hope the wards don't block this…" _Lulu, I know where you are. You're in trouble_, Aya thought, cranking up her magic and focusing hard on Lulu.

In Macalania, just as Lulu felt herself becoming sucked dry of magic, she suddenly felt completely rejuvenated. A flood of emotions raced through her—knowing where she was at first, even if she didn't really know, and suddenly feeling in grave danger.

"So, Aya knows where I am, and that I'm in trouble," Lulu murmured. She summoned her magic again, and thought, _How do I get out? I am hurt, and lost._

Aya was still sitting with her eyes closed in her cell, while Wakka and Tidus watched her blankly. She inhaled sharply as she received Lulu's message: she wanted to know how to get out of where she was. Before she could think, she shifted to feeling hurt, and then, finally, that helpless feeling of being completely lost.

"Lulu wants to know how to get out. She says she's hurt and lost, I think," Aya said, eyes still closed. "How do I do this…" _Trickery. Illusion_, Aya thought. _It's an illusion_!

* * *

Will Lulu be able to understand what Aya is saying and break the illusion? Can Rikku, Paine, and Yuna all survive certain death? You will see :D I'll try to be quicker on the update this time, I promise!

Preview for next chapter:

Lulu was focusing hard on the woods itself as she sat there on the ground. For a moment, she dared to open her eyes--but only for a moment. She didn't want to break her concentration. What she saw for that one moment was elating--half of her vision was still focused on the overgrown crystal forest that she had gotten herself caught into, while she could see the faint outline of what looked like one of the nooks in the Macalania Woods she knew...

Thank you kindly :D

Lulala


	21. Chapter 21

Sorry about the long wait, again. I'm just very busy with school... I will finish this, though, and it's getting down to the wire! I've got my next fic in the works already, title and everything, and I'm almost done with the first chapter! Special preview and summary at the end of the last chapter of this fic, keep an eye out!

THANK YOU to all three of my reviewers last chapter:

**DarkAnimePriestess:** And continue I most definitely shall :D Thank you, as always, for reviewing. You people that review every chapter deserve something special, haha. Good for one request in my next fic, perhaps? We shall see :D

**Paine3:** You'll have to wait and see what happens :D Good luck with the guessing, and thank you for reviewing!

**Musicmaker:** EXTRA long, just for you. And school is poop.

* * *

Aya, Wakka, and Tidus were all cheering. The illusion had been broken, and they could rest considerably easier. If Aya could now only get some time out of her cell. Then, perhaps, the escape could happen even today.

* * *

Lulu stirred. When she cracked open her eyes, a burst of light swelled in, and she quickly threw her blanket back over her head. Where was she, anyway? She took another couple minutes to get used to the light. Once she got a proper look at the room, she realized immediately that she was in the cabin of the Celsius. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were lying there, as well; all three of them were awake, and looked considerably relieved when Lulu sat up. Right on Lulu's forehead, there was a sudden stab of pain—a killer headache, no doubt, from overusing her magic.

It was silent for a moment as the girls looked at each other. Finally, Rikku spoke. "What… happened to us?"

Paine looked angry, and Yuna looked bewildered.

Lulu hesitated. "I think I can answer that."

Everyone's attention snapped to her. She took a deep breath. "The whole thing as an illusion."

Paine's eyes widened. Lulu saw her fists clench. Rikku ripped off one of her bandages, bearing a deep, long gash. "You think _this _is an illusion!"

"Obviously a new type of illusion," Lulu replied immediately. "Formulated by a mage. I've never seen the spell before."

"How did we get out?" Yuna asked. "The last thing I remember is that I was about to die—"

"Me too," Rikku added.

"Hmph," Paine grunted. Everyone took this to mean that she had nearly died as well.

"Well… we got out because… since I'm a black mage, the magic has the least amount of effect on me… wow, this is complicated…" Lulu bit her lip. "Actually, Aya saved us."

"What?" Paine said sharply. "How could she have?"

"She… well, she basically sent me little bits of magic with feelings attached. I read her feelings and found out it was an illusion, and I did my best with what little training I had to break it," Lulu explained.

"So, the major question now is, who cast this on us?" Yuna said, picking at one of her bandaged fingers absently.

"I keep thinking I know the aura of the magic from somewhere," Lulu mused, thinking back.

"Let's get off this airship and go relax in the village or something," Rikku suggested. "We're in Besaid, so I'm thinking that could be fun."

Everyone agreed. Much to Brother's dismay, the girls went back to the village. All of them could walk just fine, thankfully. Being completely without anything to do, Paine bought a few yards of fabric from a weaver in the village, and she, Lulu, and Rikku sat down and began to mend the holes and cracks in Rikku and Paine's hut. Yuna couldn't sew at all, due to the damage done to her fingers by the birds. All of them were wrapped and bandaged up, and nearly unmovable.

"I'm sure you can figure out who it was, Lulu," Yuna said encouragingly.

"I hope I can," Lulu said with a sigh. "I mean, maybe I should try sending a message to Aya… or maybe I should just go see her."

"So, I'll bet she seemed pretty clued in on the whole thing. How convenient that she just happened to know that you were stuck in an illusion," Paine commented, an edge of sarcasm in her voice.

Rikku scowled. "Will you drop it?"

Paine scowled back at her. "It could have easily been her."

"Could NOT!"

"Don't make me argue with you!"

"She didn't—OUCH!" Rikku squealed, pulling her hand away and sticking her thumb into her mouth. "You made me stick myself!"

Paine rolled her eyes.

Lulu stood up. "I'm going to go to the library in the temple for a little while," she announced. She had to get away from the arguing, and besides, she wanted to do a little research on mages. She could recall some extensive studies done on them when there were more of them around—they had learned precious little about them in school, however.

Once Lulu got there, she pulled out every book that she could find—which was an astonishing total of two. There wasn't anything useful that she could find, so she resorted to paying a visit to Luca to talk to Aya. Sure, they had the radio, but a radio conversation just wasn't going to do it for Lulu at the moment. Besides, she was pretty sure that Aya would have some type of magic books around her house.

When she returned to Rikku and Paine's hut, they were still sewing things up, so Lulu dragged Yuna back to the airship with her. "Hey, Brother, could we head to Luca for a few hours?" Yuna asked.

Brother eyed her warily. "You are hurt."

"We just want to talk with Aya," Lulu told him.

Brother looked uncertain. "Well…"

"Okay," Buddy said. "You guys will be okay, I'm sure."

Buddy set the ship up on autopilot to take them to Luca. Lulu found it hard to fend off her curiosity, which was growing and growing. The illusion would have had to have been extremely powerful to affect her the way it had. She vaguely wondered for a moment how Aya knew, but stopped herself. Doubting her best source of information at the moment wasn't wise.

When they were dropped off in Luca, Lulu realized that she hadn't the faintest idea where Aya lived. Luckily, Yuna had her radio with her. Lulu punched in the button with the number of Aya's radio on it, and said into it uncertainly, "Aya?"

There was no answer.

"Aya, it's Lulu," she said, a little louder.

Silence.

"Aya! This is important, please answer!"

Either Aya had misplaced her radio, or something was very wrong with this picture…

For awhile, Yuna and Lulu aimlessly wandered all around Luca, looking for Aya. As the city itself was so big, it was impossible to search everywhere. Anyone they asked said that they hadn't seen her for days, so it wasn't much help.

"Odd, isn't it?" Yuna said after yet another person denied seeing her within the past three days. "She usually is all around the city helping people, and nobody has seen her for awhile."

Lulu nodded in agreement. "Maybe she got sick or something. I bet if we could find her brother, he could help us."

After a bit longer of searching, they found themselves on a completely deserted section of the docks. The only person that was there was a very peculiar looking girl. She had raven black hair down to the middle of her back, and piercing, ice blue eyes. She had on a pair of white shorts over distressed black capri pants, with a spikey belt just for looks, and wore a black tank top over a white one. Her wrists, similar to Aya's, were covered with bangles, and she had a silver ring on almost every finger. She didn't look very approachable, leaning against a wall the way she was, staring out at the ocean with a blank expression on her pale face.

A man walking suddenly came into view, and Lulu and Yuna decided to question him as to Aya's whereabouts.

"Sir, have you happened to see the short, redheaded girl named Aya around here lately?" Yuna asked politely.

"No," he answered, eyeing them strangely.

"Do you happen to know her address?" Lulu pressed, as the man was looking as though he was about to bolt.

"No!" he answered firmly, walking quickly away.

"What are we gonna do?" Yuna moaned.

The girl leaning against the wall was suddenly paying attention. "I know where Uruna Aya lives," she said, her voice reminding Lulu sharply of Paine.

"Really?" she asked cautiously. "Are we thinking of the same Aya?"

"Short, red hair, mage," the girl said with a nod. "I'm guessing that we are."

Lulu smiled slightly. She held out her hand. "Lulu."

The girl took it. "Meena," she replied, shaking Lulu's hand. "Follow me, it's this way," she said, leading them off the docks the way they had come.

"So Meena, how do you know Aya?" Yuna asked.

"My family is friends with her family," Meena replied easily. "I spend a lot of time at her house, actually… she and her brother train me."

"Are you training to become a mage?" Lulu wanted to know.

"Partly," Meena replied. "Just like Ryuen, I specialize in a certain element."

"I didn't know he did," Lulu replied thoughtfully. "Which is it?"

"Fire," Meena replied. "And I specialize in ice magic."

Lulu immediately understood why ice magic would work better for Meena—for one, she had an icy type of aura, and for another, her eyes were so blue that Lulu was reminded of ice when she looked at them. "I'd much rather be a fighter, though," Meena added.

Lulu and Yuna exchanged glances. They were both fairly certain that this girl would love to meet Paine. Before long, they came upon a cozy little house, wedged tightly between two much larger houses. Meena walked up and rapped hard on the door without hesitation. A very tired looking Ryuen answered moments later.

"What, Meena?" he said, sounding annoyed. "I've been up all night, and I've just gotten to sleep, so could we train tomorrow?"

"It's not about that," Meena replied, shooting him a stony glare. "I brought some people that were looking for Aya."

Ryuen's eyes widened. "Not—oh, you guys—hi, what's up?"

"Have you seen Aya lately?" Lulu asked. "I need to talk to her, it's important."

Ryuen looked worried. "I was hoping she was with you. She hasn't been home for three days, at least."

There was an outbreak of momentary panic, but almost immediately, a calm, collected Meena suggested that they go inside and talk things out.

"So, when was the last time you saw her?" Lulu asked.

"Three days ago," Ryuen replied. "I brought her with me out onto the docks to buy some books from a few vendors I know, and she disappeared. I figured she just got bored and transported herself back here, or to wherever you guys were, but… I guess not. And then, not much later, I felt a transportation spell come from that secret basement beneath the stadium. It wasn't her that I know of, though, because it was much sloppier than hers, with more power than needed."

"Skip the magic analysis," Meena advised.

"Right. Anyway, I was up all night looking for her, but I couldn't find her," Ryuen finished.

"Now Wakka, Tidus, and Aya are all missing," Lulu mumbled thoughtfully. Suddenly, a light bulb went on in Lulu's head as she was digesting everything Ryuen had said. _"…because it was much sloppier than hers, with more power than needed…"_ Why hadn't Lulu noticed in the first place!

Yuna noticed that Lulu had frozen up with a look of surprise on her face. "Lulu, what's wrong?"

"Yuna," Lulu said urgently, "we have to get back to Besaid, now. You two had better come, too," she said, gesturing to Ryuen and Meena. "This is an emergency, we have to hurry!"

Yuna called Brother while Lulu begged Ryuen for books about mages and magic in general. Ryuen loaded up two bags full of them, and they all hopped on the airship, Besaid bound.

Upon their return, Rikku and Paine were relaxing in their newly fixed hut. Lulu saw Paine's eyebrows shoot through the roof when she first saw Meena, but she figured the subject of Meena's training could stay on the back burner for the time being. "Rikku, Paine, come on! We've got work to do!" Lulu said loudly as she poked her head into the hut. Rikku and Paine immediately got up and hurried out. Surrounded by questioning friends, Lulu sped down the small road towards the temple. She veered off to the left, and burst into the blue tent flanked by military men.

"Listen, can I ask you something really quickly?" Lulu asked the person sitting at the desk.

"Sure," the man replied.

"Has their been anybody running around in a black hooded cloak around here recently?" Lulu asked. "It may sound strange, but—"

"Yes, actually," the man interrupted her. "Never did see that lady's face."

"When?" Lulu demanded.

"Just yesterday," the guy said. "She went up to the temple and came out awhile later. Headed off into the woods."

Lulu didn't wait another minute. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were considerably less confused now, but Meena and Ryuen were almost completely in the dark.

Lulu ran to the temple, everyone else struggling to keep up. She slowed as she was entering, and made a beeline for the first monk that she saw.

"Excuse me, but—"

"Lower your voice," the monk requested quietly.

"Sorry," Lulu said. "I was wondering… was there anybody wearing a black cloak praying by the Lady Ginnem statue yesterday?"

"Why, yes," the monk said, slowly and monotonously. "There was. I thought it odd that she be wearing a cloak here in Besaid. However, we gladly welcome anybody that wishes to pray—"

"Thanks!" Lulu said, before dashing out of the temple.

"We've been quiet thus far, but do you mind filling us in?" Ryuen asked hopefully.

"Once we're back in my hut," Lulu said quietly. She walked at top speed back to her hut, and once everyone was situated around the room and the door flap was shut, Lulu took a deep breath, and began.

"It all started back when I was first becoming a guardian…"

* * *

Whoo, what a cliffie! Faster update next time, I promise! And if you don't get the purpose of Meena yet, you will... very soon. Also, with the title, I'm sure some of you might possibly be beginning to understand it now, hehehe... we shall see :D

Preview for next chapter:

"Whoa," Ryuen said, voice quivering a little. "Are you serious? You actually knew her?"

"Yeah, I did," Lulu said, eyes narrowing slightly in anger. "And I know where she is."

"What!" Everyone said together in shock.

"Now, it's just a matter of our attack plan," Lulu said. "Let's split up."

Thank ya, keep reading :D

Lulala


	22. Chapter 22

Ahh, exciting, I'm back! Much sooner this time, I hope! This one ended up being a lot shorter than I planned, oopsies O.O Ah, well, enjoy, anyway. THANK YOU SO MUCH to my reviewers:

**Motet:** It's not a big deal, no worries :D Thanks, and I will try my best to keep this rolling :D

**Paine3:** WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HURRAY FOR PAINE3! throws confetti at you YOU WIN, hahaha XD I don't know what you win, but... good job:D And here I thought I was being tricky XD

**theweirdperson:** Oh, I love cliffhangers, don't you:D Yeah, I liked that too, haha XD Thanks for reviewing!

Enjoy!

* * *

Everyone was watching Lulu interestedly. Yuna was also looking extremely excited—it seemed that Tidus would at last be coming home, assuming that they got him out of wherever he was safely. Lulu continued with her story.

"When I was starting as a guardian, I was guarding a woman I knew… Lady Ginnem, as some of you may know. Some of you also may know… that Lady Ginnem died on the pilgrimage." Lulu swallowed hard, and continued with difficulty. "Lady Ginnem had two guardians: me, and her sister, Kana."

Lulu was cut off by a gasp from both Ryuen and Meena.

"The day Lady Ginnem died, Kana and I both got out safely, but we were separated. Three days later, Kana became so overcome with grief that she committed suicide by jumping into the ocean in Besaid. I thought she had died, and I grieved for her, but it has become apparent to me that she is still thriving. There is no other mage in the world that could have cast that spell, other than Aya, I'd guess," Lulu said somberly. She was speaking with much less eloquence than usual—a very un-Lulu like tone, in fact.

"Kana killed my mother," Ryuen breathed after it was silent for a moment.

Rikku looked violated. "She killed your mother, she nearly killed us, and now she's got Wakka and Tidus? We've got to do something!"

Ryuen turned to Lulu. "Wow, you really knew her?"

"Yeah, I did," Lulu said. "And I know where she is."

Everyone gasped in shock.

"Now, all we need to do is get an attack plan together," Lulu continued. "Let's split up."

"I think someone should look for Aya," Rikku said concernedly.

"Ryuen and I should do that," Meena offered.

Suddenly, Rikku's radio crackled. "Rikku?"

"What, Shinra?"

"That sphere you guys found awhile back? It's done. Want to watch it?"

Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and Paine exchanged glances, and bolted for the door. They ran nearly all the way back to the airship with Ryuen and Meena trailing hopelessly behind. When they got there, Shinra had it all ready to go, and he pushed play, each of them as anxious as ever to see what had taken so long.

The picture was still extremely bad, but the audio was just fine. It was a young sounding woman, with a rather cruel voice. "I cannot use here for my experiments anymore," the woman was saying. "It could be discovered. I mean, if it weren't for that dratted—I guess I'll just set this as a trap for anybody that might wander along here. Just know that all my work on resurrection… ruined. By one little tiny flood, too. And if I'm not careful, someone will sense that I'm here… well, best be off… and I think I know the perfect place to go…"

The sphere cut off. Lulu's eyes widened. "So that's her plan—"

"What?" everyone chorused immediately.

"She's going to try to bring Lady Ginnem back to life," Lulu replied quietly.

"That's so illegal!" Ryuen gasped.

"She's practically a serial killer, how is that being illegal gonna stop her?" Paine pointed out.

"Wait… so Wakka and Tidus are with a serial killer?" Rikku asked frightfully.

Paine cast a glance at Rikku, but didn't reply.

"What are we going to do?" Rikku moaned.

"Back to the plan," Lulu said, forcibly leading the conversation in another direction, "like I said, I think we should split up."

Yuna shook her head. "No way! Against an evil witch like that? She'd kill us in a second!"

"If we're all in one group, then if she finds one of us, she finds all of us," Paine murmured. "Brilliant, Lulu."

"Wait, wait," Rikku interrupted, "how is setting us up to get killed in any way, shape, or form brilliant?"

"Do you want Wakka and Tidus back or not?" Paine asked her sharply.

"Awww…" Rikku moaned. "It's such a hard question," she whined. "Of course I want them back, I just don't want to die."

Lulu began mumbling a prayer that her mother had taught her, just to comfort herself. She had used it often for such things. Her mother had told her that if she ever was really in trouble to say the prayer, and, if she did it right, something would happen. Lulu was convinced that her mother wasn't right about something happening, because it had never worked for her before. It was just a small source of comfort.

Ryuen stared at Lulu. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Learn what? The prayer?"

"Yeah. It's the incantation for the type of Ultima spell that mages use."

"WHAT?"

"You didn't know?" Ryuen asked her.

"Obviously!" Lulu said in disbelief. "So this whole time, there was a way more powerful Ultima that I could have been using!"

"Well, it takes a lot of power to execute it," Ryuen said. "I'm sure something like that would be able to kill Kana."

"She's really powerful," Lulu said. "Are you positive?"

"Well, if we could track down Aya, then I'm sure we could get the job done," he said with a nod.

"We should try radioing her again," Yuna suggested. "Maybe she just didn't hear it last time or something…"

* * *

Aya had been helping Kana for a full four hours without a break. The worst part about the whole thing was that Kana was absolutely brilliant, and Aya couldn't see why she even needed her help. Evidently, she must have had something Kana wanted.

She had been shown around the whole cave—Kana had claimed it was necessary, since she said she was going to send Aya on errands to get things from different rooms. She had about three rooms full of magic potions and things, a library, a room that she kept locked, which Aya was sure the ethers were in, Kana's bedroom, which was also locked, and the laboratory, where they were working. Aya wasn't sure where Wakka and Tidus were, but that didn't matter… contact wouldn't be necessary for the escape that they had planned…

"Aya, go to the second room on the right, and get me one of the bottles of clear liquid from the shelf against the left wall."

…which would happen about now.

Aya walked down the hallway, purposefully bypassing the correct room. She stopped in front of the locked room and stared at it thoughtfully. After a moment, she shut her eyes and sent a quick message to Tidus, who had swore that he would realize…

An ear splitting scream coming from a room on the other side of the caves rang through the hallway, and Aya smiled—Kana was now probably running in the opposite direction…

Aya placed her hand gently on the door. Just as she thought—there were magic wards on the door. She smirked. She pressed her other palm onto the door. There was a small clicking noise, and the door slowly opened. _So much for magic wards_, Aya thought. _Then again, I doubt she knows that I invented that spell at all_.

She went into the room, and immediately spotted a safe. She quickly placed her palms over the combination lock, and the safe sprang open. She found her belt, bangles, and pearl anklet in it—jackpot. She quickly fastened her anklet, and poured two ethers down her throat. She hurriedly performed a transportation spell—she didn't want Kana to notice that the locked door's ward wasn't there anymore. She felt a soaring feeling in the pit of her stomach—she was finally home free. She didn't really know where she was, but she knew where she was going—and then, she let out a scream—where had this sudden stabbing pain come from…?

* * *

Wheeee, hurrah for more cliffies:D Thanks for reading, don't forget to make my day and review!

Preview for next chapter:

Aya opened her eyes--what had happened? This place looked somehow familiar to her, but... _what the hell_.

Where _was _she...?

Suddenly, she saw a familiar face looming over her--Ryuen.

"Ryuen--" she began, but found that she could not talk.

Ryuen was suddenly motioning for someone else to come over... Aya found that she couldn't hear him...

* * *

ACK, what's wrong with her! Read the next chapter to find out!

Thank you :D

Lulala


	23. Chapter 23

Sorry this is so late, again XD Hey, I tried. Yeah yeah, more boring talky stuff for this chapter, but oho, NEXT chapter... will be a doozy. It will take awhile to write if I want to make it good, I'm sorry XD If I could just get a day or like, 4 hours when I don't have anything to do! Two reviews last chapter... BIG thank you to **theweirdperson **and **DarkAnimePriestess**! Cookies for you :D

* * *

Aya opened her eyes—what happened? This place somehow looked familiar to her, but… _what the hell_.

Where _was _she…?

Suddenly, she saw a familiar face looming over her—Ryuen.

"Ryuen—" she began, but she found that she could not talk.

Ryuen was suddenly motioning for someone else to come over. Aya found that she could not hear him…

Another familiar face—Yuna. Her vision was getting blurry, but she saw Yuna trying to heal her in a rushed manner. She wasn't feeling any better—in fact, she almost felt worse. She wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came out. Thankfully, after a few more moments, everything went black.

* * *

They tried radioing Aya three more times, each being unsuccessful. Finally, it was decided that they would fly back to Luca to regroup at Ryuen and Aya's, and then head out to face Kana. The group as a whole needed to learn some general defense magic, and Ryuen figured he was the best teacher.

"Nothing will protect you from her strongest spells," he was telling them as they were walking up the path to his house. "But if you have elementary protection skills, then you may be able to ward off some of the spells."

He turned the knob on the door, and when they all had stepped in, their jaws dropped open in shock. Lying in the doorway, bloody, beaten, and completely unaware of where she was, was Aya.

Ryuen collapsed onto his knees next to her, trying to examine all of her injuries at once. He yelled for Yuna to try to heal Aya, who seemed completely bewildered. One of her pigtails had fallen out, and the hair was tangled and matted down against her head. Her forehead was split open, and fresh blood trickled down her nose and periodically into her eyes. Big, purple bruises were easily visible sporadically over her body.

Yuna tried for about ten minutes to heal her, but nothing seemed to work—when Aya finally shut her eyes, Ryuen freaked out—Yuna assured him that she had only passed out.

"What are we going to do?" Lulu asked worriedly.

"Research," Ryuen replied shakily. "We'll take care of her wounds the best we can, then figure out why she doesn't seem to be able to hear us or anything."

"I dunno," Paine said warily. "Are you sure that's—"

"Just trust me," Ryuen insisted. "I've got a feeling this could be a curse of some sort."

"A curse?" Paine repeated incredulously, as they all pounced upon Aya with bandages that Meena had produced from her own house.

"Yeah," Ryuen said. "If she came in contact with a mage, they could have easily cursed her to become completely alive, yet dead to the world."

"Odd…" Paine decided, looking unsure whether this was brilliance or cruelty.

"Only it looks like she's been beaten," Yuna said thoughtfully, examining Aya's severely bruised hand as she was wrapping it.

"It's possible," Ryuen said, shrugging his shoulders. "She could have been kidnapped, just like Wakka and Tidus."

Lulu fought not to laugh. "Who in the world would be able to kidnap her?"

"K—"

"Don't even say it," Lulu cut him off in a sharp voice. "It couldn't be."

"She's the only one I know of more powerful than Aya," Ryuen informed Lulu.

"There could be others," Lulu said evasively.

Ryuen eyed her knowingly. "You know…"

Lulu glared at him. "Okay, maybe she did. But when?"

"When I was making that deal over on the docks," Ryuen said simply. "She disappeared."

Everyone was staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

Ryuen ran off to his library of books in his room, while the rest of the girls continued tending to Aya's many injuries. All the while they spoke to her, trying to get her to wake up, or speak, or anything, but nothing seemed to work. She was absolutely out of it.

After about an hour of watching Aya and taking guesses at what was wrong, Ryuen dashed excitedly back into the room.

"I think I know what's wrong—it's right here in my book—"

He put his pointer finger on Aya's injured forehead, and muttered several words. He pulled the finger away sharply from her forehead, as though he was yanking something off of her, and her eyes slowly opened.

"What did you do?" Lulu asked in surprise.

"The place she transported out of had magic wards of some sort. Instead of the ward preventing her from leaving, she just took it along with her… and that's why she couldn't talk, or hear, or anything—it was cutting off all of her magic, and she can't function without it," Ryuen explained knowledgeably.

Rikku looked lost, but Lulu was nodding in understanding. "Aya, are you okay?"

"Fine," she said, her voice slightly scratchy and extremely quiet. "What is going on here?"

"How are you feeling?" Ryuen asked her expectantly.

"Pretty damn stupid," Aya said. "I heard what you said about the ward. I can't believe she had one on that room—"

"Who?" Ryuen and Lulu asked together.

Aya stared at both of them. "Kana."

There was a collective gasp. "How did she get you?" Meena asked, wrinkles of worry etched into her forehead.

"I felt a flare of magic down in that basement below the stadium, and went to investigate," Aya explained to her eager friends. "It was her. She and I fought… just when I though I had her, she destroyed me…"

Rikku pounced on Aya and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Aya!"

Aya shook her head. "Don't worry. I should never have gotten cocky around her. She took me out with this crazy spell that I don't even remember, and I woke up later in a jail cell in some cave."

"A jail cell?" Ryuen repeated, sounding scandalized. "You slept in a jail cell?"

"Yeah," Aya replied. "It sucked. Never do it."

"It's because you're hurt," Ryuen pointed out.

"Whatever," Aya said. "Anyway, then she forced me to watch all of you being tortured in the sphere… and guess who else she brought to watch?"

"Wakka and Tidus," Lulu said, comprehension dawning in her voice as well as on her face.

"How'd you know?" Aya asked her.

"We actually figured out it was her," Lulu said. "Because… well… I knew her."

"Well," Aya began brightly, "that explains A LOT."

"She thinks I killed her sister," Lulu said quietly.

Aya scowled. "Marvelous. So, anyway, turns out she fired that spell as a decoy to get me, cuz she wanted me to help her invent a spell to bring the dead back to life."

"Did you?" Ryuen asked her, gaze narrowing. "If you did, that's illegal—"

"Shut up, of course I didn't," Aya said, making a face at her brother. "Not like she needed my help anyway, she's a freakin' genius."

Ryuen looked confused. "Then… she took you for no reason?"

"Oh, no, I'm sure there was a reason," Aya said, chewing her thumbnail. "If I only knew what it was."

"In any case, once you're healthy, Aya, we're going after her," Lulu said determinedly. "We have to free Wakka and Tidus before she does something to them—"

"They didn't seem like they were hurt when I saw them," Aya said. "Sure, Tidus had to stab himself in the hand as a diversion so that I could escape, but… I'm sure she healed him."

Yuna suddenly looked extremely pale, and Paine watched her carefully. For a moment, she looked as though she might faint.

"Kana won't kill them or let them die because they're not any use to her if they're dead… if she kills them, there's no bait," Aya explained.

"How long do you think it will take you to get better?" Lulu asked, a spark flaring up behind her eyes at the thought of facing Kana at last.

"Hmm… a turbo ether or two and I can heal myself, and then I'm all better," Aya said. "But we need a game plan."

"We're splitting up," Paine said immediately. "We already decided."

"Not a bad plan," Aya said. "Someone that knows magic should be on each team. She's dangerous, after all, and knowing a little magic would help."

"So that's basically you, Lulu, and Ryuen," Paine said.

"Yuna too," Lulu reminded her.

Yuna looked bashful. "No, I'm not that good, I'm—"

"You'll do just fine," Aya said with a smile. "Don't worry. Let's see… we have seven, so it will be uneven…"

"Got it," Yuna said. "How about I go with Meena and Paine, Rikku goes with Lulu, and Aya goes with Ryuen?"

Aya sighed. "Must I go with my brother? He doesn't let me have any fun."

Yuna giggled. "Okay. Ryuen, go with Lulu, and Rikku can go with Aya."

Ryuen went down to the cellar of their house, bringing back two bottles of turbo ether, and about eight bottles of normal. Aya slipped the normal ones into her belt, and took both turbo ones. It took her nearly ten minutes to completely heal herself to the state she was in before her fight with Kana. All the damage that was done was so severe that she ended up having to take another ether before they could even think about leaving.

"So, how do we figure out where she is?" Aya asked Lulu. "Tracing my spell backward would be nearly impossible—"

"Don't worry," Lulu said. "I have a hunch. Let's get moving—once we get back to the airship, I'll explain."

Aya walked slowly at first, but seemed to be herself after they walked to the edge of the main part of the city. After waiting for a few minutes, Buddy and Brother in the airship turned up, and they all climbed hurriedly aboard.

Lulu gave Buddy instructions in a hushed voice, and all seven of them retreated back into the cabin, ordered everyone out, and shut the door.

"These plans are secret," Lulu said quietly. "Even from Calli and Barkeep."

Everyone surveyed each other carefully, anxiety growing with each second.

"This is the most dangerous mission you will ever go on," Lulu continued. "Anyone who can kill you with the snap of their fingers is extremely dangerous. For those of us who can't generate a shield out of thin air, this poses a huge threat to our success."

Aya rolled her eyes.

"We must get to Wakka and Tidus," she said firmly. "And here's how we'll do it…"

Lulu went over the plan several times. They had a few minutes to practice a simple spell that may, if used correctly, ward off other spells being cast on you.

Before long, Buddy came over the intercom and announced that they had arrived at their destination. Everyone walked determinedly down the hallway and into the elevator. The silence was absolutely unnerving. Before everyone knew it, they were getting off the airship. By now, Meena's knees were shaking and Rikku had goose bumps, but they kept going until their feet hit solid ground.

Everyone had a look at what lay before them. Rikku was squinting at it in confusion, while Yuna almost smirked. "I should have known."

* * *

So, got any guesses at where they are? Haha, you don't have to guess. Just leave me some feedback, if you please :D

No preview for next chapter... sorry guys! I really gotta think that one through!

Thanks muchly,

Lulala


	24. Chapter 24

Whoo, is it just me or has it been a month XD Okay, okay, sorry, but stuff has been going on, and it's been pretty depressing, and I just haven't had the time or energy or will or whatever to write. Aaand I'm not even sure this is that good XD I tried, though. My original plan for this chapter was to have all of it be a fight scene, but since it might take me a bit to get back into writing here, I changed it a bit. New review response thing since I've been gone, too, can't wait to try that out! Assuming you all still read this, haha.

Enjoy!

* * *

In front of them stood the entrance to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. One thing, however, caught everyone's eye—the entrance was barricaded off.

"Screw that," Aya said, preparing to blast it away.

"Don't!" Ryuen yelled. "Don't! What if there's really a reason that we're not supposed to go in there?"

"There's some mage in there that can kill us all… yeah, I'm pretty sure there's been a reason for us no to come here from the beginning," Rikku said quietly. Her goose bumps and nervousness seemed to have subsided at the sight of the barricade.

"Could your hunch have been wrong?" Yuna questioned Lulu.

Lulu eyed the barricade thoughtfully. "It's possible… it's just that, this is where her sister died, and this is where it all happened…"

Aya walked up to the barricade and placed her palm on it. She pulled it away quickly as if she had been burned by something scalding hot. "Wards," she said with a wince. "Don't wanna get caught up in those again."

"So she's there?" Paine said expectantly.

"Of course. Either that or it's worth checking out anyway. Someone who can cast a spell like that…" Aya said, voice trailing off.

"So how do we get in?" Meena asked.

"The wards can only keep us from transporting in. If we can get the barricade down, we'll be able to waltz right in," Aya said confidently. She surveyed the barricade for a moment, nodded her head in understanding, and mumbled a few words. The barricade was reduced to dust. "Wait wait, let me check for traps and stuff—" Aya said, stopping everyone from proceeding into the cavern.

After a thorough inspection, they cautiously entered the cavern. Rikku began to say something, but Aya hushed her immediately—'no talking', she mouthed. When they came to the first fork, they split into 2 groups—Lulu, Paine, Rikku, and Aya went one way, while Ryuen, Yuna, and Meena went the other way. Aya quickly instructed Ryuen to send her a message if something went wrong, and they were all on their way.

Before long, Rikku found herself wishing they had stayed together. Aya and Lulu were evidently contacting through small bits of magic—far too small for Kana to sense. They remained on the same page, while Paine and Rikku cast each other occasional glances of confusion. They searched the whole cavern, surprisingly without finding anything or anyone. Near the back, or what they assumed to be the back, they ran into the other three, who seemed unscathed. Something was definitely not right.

"Okay, break the no talking rule," Aya finally said after trying to communicate for several minutes without words. "So, what did you guys find?"

"Nothing," Yuna confessed. "It seems the same as last time we were here."

"Something had to have made the people that live in the Calm Lands close it off," Paine said flatly.

"Well, yeah," Meena agreed. "Kana probably conjured up some type of monster to scare everyone away—"

"Probably," Aya agreed. "So, where is she?"

"Maybe there was a way that we didn't go," Yuna suggested hopefully.

"Doubt it," Lulu said, shooting it down. "This isn't the biggest cavern in the world. I'm doubting we missed something… after all, you guys know your way around here pretty well."

Yuna blushed. "I was just hoping—"

"This couldn't be another illusion…" Rikku said worriedly.

"Of course not," Aya said, dismissing it immediately. "We'd notice… horrible things would be happening."

"I'll bet she used some sort of spell to hide it," Ryuen said.

"Hmm," Aya murmured. "Let's make a more careful round around this thing—make sure we cover ALL the ground. If you run into an invisible wall, let me know… let's go together, okay?"

And so they started back around the cave, making sure they walked over all the ground. At least half an hour later, when they were at one of the dead ends near the beginning of the cave…

"OUCH!" Meena shouted, rubbing her forehead furiously. "I think I found it?"

Aya giggled. She walked over to where Meena was and felt around. "Well, look at that, you did!" she said, fighting back laughter. "Or, I mean, your forehead did."

As everyone chuckled to themselves, Aya concentrated on undoing Kana's spell. "Now," she began as her movements and facial expressions became smoother and more relaxed, "the moment I finish undoing this, she'll know, so we have limited time, okay? Get in and get out is our policy here."

Everyone nodded in understanding. "I think we should rethink the splitting up," Ryuen said. "We have no reliable way of communication that won't give us away."

"True," Aya agreed. "So we stay together, then."

Suddenly, there was a faint popping noise, and the entrance to Kana's cave had finally shown itself. Lulu quickly placed her hand on the handle of the door, and began to turn it. She had been waiting for this moment for what had seemed like years… finding Wakka and taking him home. The thought of dying in the cave hadn't even crossed her mind, though it probably should have.

As the door swung open, it seemed that their brilliant plan had failed already—there stood Kana, poised to attack.

She surveyed the entire party, before her gaze finally came to rest on Ryuen and Aya, who were standing next to each other.

"Such a pretty little family," she said almost tauntingly. "Miss your dear mother, boy?" she said to Ryuen.

"Don't pretend like you don't know my name," he spat at her. "I know you do."

"My my, we talk big for someone who's powers are significantly lower than that of his younger sister," Kana said, this time in a tone that was definitely a taunt. "Ryuen, your mother's blood which flows through your veins is capable of far greater power than you'll ever even come close to exhibiting if you keep going at the rate that you're going."

Ryuen shot a quick fire spell at her in anger, which she easily deflected.

"Don't pick a fight with me, Ryuen," she said warningly. "This wasn't even about you in the first place. This was about—" her eyes fell on Lulu, "—her."

Lulu stared Kana down.

"You killed my sister," Kana said, voice almost trembling with rage. "And now, I'm going to kill you."

"I didn't kill her," Lulu said. "Her death was an accident. Both of our faults. If you don't want to believe it, that's your problem."

"You killed my sister," Kana repeated. "The only person who has ever meant anything to me on this planet. And you killed her. Now, you'll pay."

"I didn't kill your sister," Lulu repeated. "And even if I had, that is no reason to be dragging innocent people like Wakka and Tidus into this."

"Finally figured it out, have you?" Kana asked coldly. "Took you long enough. They were the only means to get to you besides your precious Gullwings, which would be nearly impossible to capture."

Paine looked increasingly angry, and partially proud at this. She clenched her fist over a garment grid—fighting this woman with a sword certainly wasn't going to work.

"Your sister died for what she believed in—she believe in killing Sin!" Lulu shouted. "Why must you look to different people for what your sister did to herself? You cannot blame anyone but her, Kana, and you know it!"

Kana chuckled a little. "Actually, I think you'll find that I can." She narrowed her eyes to stare directly at Lulu. With a snap of her fingers, she unleashed a spell that Lulu had never seen before. She quickly muttered a protect spell to the back round of an immense roar being unleashed by the spell, and the screams of her comrades.

After the roaring noise of the spell had faded, Lulu let down her protect spell, forehead wrinkled with worry. She would never forgive herself if her friends had died… Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were evidently the sources of the screams that kept repeating over and over in her head.

Aya's eyes slowly traveled toward the ground to have a good stare at the Gullwings—already fallen, before the fight had even begun. A quick check of Yuna revealed that they had simply been knocked unconscious from hitting the solid stone wall.

"Still think you can defeat me?" Kana asked menacingly. "You weren't affected by the spell that I created, which means that all of you have some magical property about you…"

"Just shove it," Aya said. "Let's finish this!" She launched an enormous Flare in Kana's direction.

"You learned nothing from our first meeting!" Kana taunted, easily deflecting it. She leaped into the air, and deadly lightning bolts shot from her hands and showered down upon them all.

Meena, it seemed, had a very weak blue shield similar to Aya's translucent red light shield. Ryuen simply bent his fire, which cost him no magic points to produce, to his will, and used it to protect himself. Lulu used protect.

Meena wound up and shot the most enormous ice daggers Lulu had ever seen at Kana. She flinched very noticeably as they bounced off of her shield—bloody gashes were left on her arms. If she was breaking down already, there was no way she'd last through all four of them. Ryuen ran a few steps forward and engulfed her in flames. Aya felt a drop of sweat drip down her temple from the heat of the fire.

All three of the rest of them unleashed a fire spell on her as well, and all prayed that this would be the end of her. As all four of them silently prayed, a huge explosion went off from the epicenter of the flames. Meena's shield was easily penetrated, and she slid backward into the wall, and fell onto the stone floor face-first.

"Meena!" Aya yelled, starting to dash over to her. It was then that she saw something that absolutely broke her heart—her brother, whom she had lost in the explosion, was bloodied and beaten, lying there unconscious on the floor. She assumed that Lulu had met the same fate—she was nowhere to be seen.

Aya couldn't help it—a tear rolled down her cheek. The others had barely lasted twenty minutes, and here she was to face the hardest opponent she had ever faced—by herself.

"KANA!" she screamed, her throat nearly tearing. "I'm going to avenge my mother RIGHT NOW!"

A soft chuckle. "You are, are you? I set this up just this way, you know… I did want to face you again."

"Show your face!" Aya demanded. "Show it now! Fight me face to face, coward!"

The smoke from the explosion had just begun to clear away. "Show my face? I suppose it's only proper to look into the face of your killer before you die."

Aya felt her heart skip a beat. She absolutely knew that this woman was one hundred percent capable of killing her, but it hadn't hit her until just then. "Come out, then!"

"I sense your fear," Kana said mockingly. "Don't want to die, little girl? Step down. You have no choice—you will help me revive my sister, or you will die."

"I won't be part of your plan!" Aya shouted.

A small wind suddenly breezed through, clearing the smoke. Aya saw Kana standing some twenty feet away from her, looking nearly unscathed from their fierce fire attack.

"Are you ready, little girl?" Kana asked, pleasure dancing behind her eyes. "Once I'm through with you, I'll kill Lulu and get my revenge… and the destroy your brother, and that will be the end of your mother's line for good… oh, how I will enjoy this…"

Aya screamed, firing an enormous lighting spell at Kana. Kana dodged, and charged at Aya. Aya wasn't afraid to fight hand to hand with Kana, and that seemed to be the way Kana preferred to start things out. A wide variety of blocked punches and kicks were exchanged between the two. Kana grabbed Aya's left wrist. Aya used her momentum to thrust the heel of her had into Kana's nose. She let out a screech, and Aya wrenched herself free. She socked Kana in the right cheek, and got in a perfect kick to her gut. She kneed Kana in the face, and then kicked her halfway across the cave.

Aya stood there, panting, and swiftly wiped her forehead of sweat. This was far from over, and she suddenly knew it, as she saw Kana pulling herself up off of the ground, wiping a trickle of blood away from the corner of her mouth.

* * *

Hmm, what'd you think? Next chapter one BIG fight scene, I hope you're ready, cuz I sure am! I promise I will TRY to get this one in faster! I mean, I have a lot less going on now, but you know... drama... it sucks. Anyway, thanks for reading, I appreciate it!

Thanks again,

Lulala


	25. Chapter 25

Happy New Year, everyone :D

Hope you like fight scenes, wahaha! Enjoy!

* * *

No words were spoken between the two enemies. The fighting began again as Kana charged Aya, fists sparkling with lightning spells waiting to be released into Aya's body. Kana clumsily swung a fist at Aya's head. Aya ducked, letting out a sigh of relief. Kana took another swing, and Aya swung backward, her hands landing on the ground, as she held herself propped in a bridge. She swung her legs up, kicking Kana in the sternum, and was back on her feet. She lit her own fists up with fire, and the two continued exchanging blows.

Kana was fast. It was nearly impossible to hit her, especially when she was trying to punch with fire. Kana soon could no longer hold the lightning at her hands anymore, and instead blasted it at Aya, while really trying to get away from having to fight physically. All the missed blows had tired her slightly. She shot several fire spells, each going off like a gunshot and ringing in Aya's ear as she rolled out of the way of one. From her back, she fired a huge blizzard spell through the ground. An enormous string of icicles shot up from the ground in a long line, all the way to Kana, who hurriedly blocked them.

Aya tried to silence Kana, only to have it deflected. Kana ran a few steps forward and let off a huge demi spell. Aya flew backward, but managed to land more or less on her feet. She scrambled from her crouching position back into a fully upright one, taking another shot with a blizzard spell.

As before, Kana blocked. Aya decided it would be best to try to initiate physical combat again, since blocked spell after blocked spell was nearly as tedious as dodged punch after dodged punch. She ran forward, casting spells as she went, just to keep Kana busy blocking. Just before reaching Kana, she fired a huge fire spell right in her face, and then baseball slided into her legs, knocking her completely down. Aya slammed her hand on the ground, causing ice crystals to shoot up from seemingly nowhere. Aya saw with satisfaction that Kana was unable to block at least some of the attack—she saw very bad gashes on the left side of Kana's body.

Kana pulled herself up from that surprisingly fast, wasting no time in healing her injuries. "That was good… you're like your mother. Stubborn, resourceful, powerful… and yet, you get frustrated so easily!" Kana launched an enormous flare at Aya, who blocked it, but felt the light burning at her eyes as she was engulfed in it. She tightened her stance as the spell's fury increased, and felt her feet begin to slide backward…

She knew that it would be taking a big chance, but she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to hold the shield. All she knew was that this had to be wiping Kana's magic points. In a split second, she released her shield and fired a particularly powerful water spell to fend off the flare. She held both hands out in front of her, quivering with the power and strength it took to sustain the spell. It seemed to be working, the flare spell was being pushed violently back toward its caster.

Kana made basically no effort to fight the water spell. She let down her flare, and immediately administered an ether to herself. Aya had been right—that spell had wiped her clean of magic points, or at least put her below her comfort level. She fired a few successive lightning spells at Aya, each going off with a powerful crack and ending in a thunderous roar. Aya blocked each one, but with a bit of difficulty—Kana was, obviously, a force to be reckoned with, and her spells reflected that. It seemed that as the fight went on, she only got stronger.

Aya let down her shield and fired a flare spell of her own. It flew out of her hands with a deafening roar, and shot towards Kana in a violent fashion. While Kana was undoubtedly blinded by the spell, Aya slipped herself an ether, just to stay safe. Kana wouldn't even know she had done it, either, which made it even better.

As the enormous spell subsided, Kana came barreling out of the smoke, shield still up, towards Aya. She took a swing at her, which Aya dodged easily. Aya turned to her side and smashed her elbow into Kana's back. Kana landed face-first on the rock-solid ground, and Aya swore she heard a crunching noise. She swung her leg back and placed a kick right at Kana's ribcage. Kana flipped over onto her back, moaning, as blood drained from her nose, which was obviously broken.

She began hastily healing herself the best she could. Aya was in shock—every time she had hurt something, the blood had been minimal—she used magic, so it mostly disintegrated. Never had she injured a person to the point of bleeding as badly as Kana currently was. She stood, with her hand over her mouth, looking extremely pale.

Kana pulled herself to her feet. "What, afraid to cause a little damage?" she asked, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"N-no, I just…"

Kana didn't let Aya finish. Quicker than lightning, she teleported next to Aya, and sunk her fist right into Aya's jaw. Aya's hands immediately rushed to cover the injured spot… she was certain she had felt a distinct pop…

Her whole jaw area was stinging, and Kana stood some ten feet away from Aya, looking smug. Aya bent over, hands still over her mouth, eyes tightly shut. A few tears managed to squeeze their way out, much to Aya's embarrassment—her eyes had now begun to water furiously. She wiped the corner of her mouth with her hand, only to find that she too was bleeding. She quickly came to her senses, and cured her jaw, though nothing was really wrong with it, other than the stinging.

"Had enough?" Kana asked with a sneer.

"No," Aya answered simply. "I won't have had enough until you're dead."

"Then, little girl, you will be waiting awhile."

"No. I won't wait anymore for my mother's killer to be dead. I will kill you before this battle is over."

Kana cackled. "You're nothing. You couldn't even stand it when you broke my nose. How are you expecting to kill me?"

With the most powerful spell ever, ultima, at her disposal, the answer was obvious.

"Are you expecting to hit me with ultima? Why, I doubt someone like you could even manage to cast that without killing yourself. You're nothing compared to me. And even if you did, whether it would penetrate my shield or not is questionable."

Aya clenched her fists. She had never killed a person before, it was true… but she had killed plenty of fiends. And she considered that fine practice. All of a sudden, Aya had a very peculiar feeling in her stomach… a sudden lurch of wanting to know where she was. It took her a moment to realize… Lulu wasn't dead or knocked out at all. She was trying to communicate with Aya.

Aya tried to put 'fighting' into a feeling, and sent it back to Lulu before Kana could realize. Just to cover it up, she fired a quick fire spell in Kana's direction. Lulu responded relatively fast. She had a feeling of looking for herself, followed by a feeling of following her own magic. In a few short minutes, Lulu would surely find her, and she would be saved. Two on one would be a sure victory.

Kana seemed to take offense to the puny, impromptu spell. "That was extremely weak," she pointed out. "You can do better than THAT!" she launched an enormous fire spell at Aya.

Aya swore, and crossed her forearms into an X, thus activating her shield. She could feel the relentless flames pounding at her shield, and her feet were sliding several feet backward with every pulse of the flames. She tried unsuccessfully to anchor herself to the ground. She suddenly felt her arms tickling a little—then stinging—then, finally, she was sure that the fire was burning them. When the flames finally ceased, Aya, feeling relieved, put down her shield to have a quick inspection of her arms before Kana's next attack.

Unfortunately, with all the smoke to mask Kana's next move, one of her extremely powerful wind spells raged through the scorched area between Aya and Kana, hitting Aya pretty much square on. She was whipped around in a tornado, and left in a heap on the ground some thirty feet from where she'd started. Aya moved a little, mostly to get a better look at a deep, stinging cut on her wrist. She tried to lift her other arm to cure it, but found it was nearly impossible. The instant soreness that had come along with the spell was suddenly causing her whole body to throb. She knew she'd be dead meat if she couldn't heal herself…

As she lay there, lame and helpless, she could hear shuffling footsteps that sounded very close, and perhaps the faint dragging of material on the stone floor… A familiar voice… and suddenly, a wave of welcome relief. Lulu had appeared, out of seemingly nowhere, and healed her.

Lulu looked a little worse for the wear—she, too, was covered in cuts and gashes of all sizes. They took a quiet moment to heal themselves, before Aya explained the situation.

"She gets more powerful as the battle goes on," Aya explained. "So the spells she'll release will be… catastrophic… if they hit."

Lulu nodded. "I expect that."

Aya peered up at her expectantly. "Aren't you… you know… afraid?"

"Oh, of course," Lulu said in a hushed voice. "But… somehow, I feel like we'll be okay."

"Everyone else is knocked out. So it's just us," Aya said, eyes focusing on Kana, who was now visible.

"Lulu, I see you awoke!" Kana said. "Perfect, now I can destroy both of you at once."

Aya glared. She mumbled something to Lulu, who nodded in reply. Lulu shot an enormous water spell at Kana, which she easily blocked. She didn't notice, however, that Aya had hidden a blizzard spell inside of the water. She was pelted with the enormous, sharp hunks of ice, causing her to scream in pain.

She fell to the ground, motionless. Lulu set her on fire, but she put it out before it could do serious damage. She still seemed as though she couldn't move. Aya and Lulu combined thunder spells. She managed to block the worst of it, but still had a few battle scars.

Before they could do any more damage, she found a moment to heal herself, and was back on her feet before either of them knew it. She used something to the effect of a smoke bomb, and charged the two girls.

It seemed to be harder on her to be challenging them physically, but she soon proved that she could handle it. As both Lulu and Aya threw punches, she blocked one of Aya's and thrust the palm of her hand straight into Lulu's face. Lulu was blasted backward, and Aya noticed that Kana had pulled gravity magic to her hand to help strengthen the blow. Lulu crashed into the wall, nose bleeding heavily.

Aya ducked anything Kana threw at her. She at last blocked a kick with her forearm, and socked Kana right in the face. She went reeling backward in pain, and Aya kicked her right in the ribs. She fell to her knees. Aya jumped on the opportunity, and her knee quickly made contact with Kana's face. Aya put her hand on Kana's head and cast both bio and paralysis. Kana lay there in shock, unable to move, though still feeling the pain of poison.

"And you thought you could beat me," Aya said mockingly.

Kana broke the paralysis spell at that. She quickly healed herself, and shot upward like a rocket at Aya. She shot a spell right in Aya's face, which she nearly failed to block. After Aya had let down her shield, Kana caught her off guard, and kicked her in the stomach. Aya gasped, and keeled over. Kana wound up and took a shot at Aya's face.

Aya had never experienced a black eye, but she was certain that she had one now. Kana took another shot to Aya's midsection, knocking the wind out of her. Aya toppled over, and Kana placed a kick to her stomach, making her feel as though she was about to be sick. She tried to move, but with her whole ribcage feeling as though it had been shattered, it was awfully hard to remove her arms from covering her midsection.

Kana slowly walked toward her. "Not two minutes ago, you taunted me," she said, sounding offended and angry. "You TAUNTED ME! Now we'll see who's really the best. Everyone else will be a snap to kill, I'm glad I chose to get rid of you first…"

"You'll never win, Kana," Aya said weakly, feeling the pain of broken ribs with every syllable she spoke. "Not really."

"Oh, but I believe that I already have," she said. "Here you are, lying on the ground, running low on magic… one move and you die, do you realize?"

"Yes," Aya said quietly. "No matter what, I will take you with me."

"Your mother said that, too," Kana said. "When she was certain she had lost. She begged and begged for her life, you know… she begged for yours, as well. I suppose that's where you differ."

"Damn right," Aya said. "I'm different from mom. I actually _will _take you with me if I die."

"You won't die," came Lulu's voice from behind Aya. "Not if I can help it."

It seemed she had healed herself, and taken an ether as well. She healed Aya, slipped her an ether, and they had a quiet discussion.

"She's running low," Aya murmured. "We have to continuously pound her, then the shield will suck her dry of magic. She'll be defenseless, and I can do ultima, and she'll be gone."

"The incantation for that is the Mage's Prayer, isn't it?" Lulu asked quietly.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"My mother taught me the prayer to use whenever I was in a bad position… I never knew it was a spell until your brother told me."

"Then we'll combine," Aya said, gaze shifting back to Kana, who was searching her pockets for an ether.

She and Lulu began, firing spell after spell. They didn't stop for nearly ten minutes, before hearing a shriek—a lightning spell had hit her. She lay there, crumpled on the ground, whimpering.

Lulu turned towards Aya. They joined hands, and began the prayer.

* * *

Oh oh, cliffhanger! Will Kana finally be finished, or will the fight drag on even longer? Keep an eye out for chapter 26!

Thank you for reading,

Lulala


	26. Chapter 26

Again, sorry this took so long! BUT, the good news is, this is the LAST chapter! Exciting, huh? Yup, so make sure you review on this one!

* * *

Both shut their eyes. The prayer, which they had started reciting quietly, grew louder and louder with every unrecognizable word that flew by. Just as Kana was pulling herself to her feet, for what she thought would have been perhaps one last push for victory, Lulu and Aya's voices, which had grown to almost a shout, abruptly stopped. Both sets of eyes shot open, and an erupting roar split the uneasily quiet air. The successfully cast ultima spell enveloped Kana, and before long, her earsplitting screams could no longer be heard.

Moments later, the roaring of the spell ceased. Aya felt Kana's magic drop from the room, and informed Lulu quietly, "Dead."

"I thought so," Lulu responded quietly.

Both stood there for a minute, in a thick silence. There was no body. If there had been, Aya wouldn't have wanted to look—it would have been completely mangled. They both gazed upon the last spot that Kana ever stood, neither entire sure what to say. Aya's mother's killer was gone, and Lulu's boyfriend's kidnapper was gone… either way, it was a murder, no matter what reasons they had done it for.

The important thing was, they had saved more people from future agony. And that was enough for Aya to tear her gaze away from the spot, and say, "Let's help the others."

Aya felt her radio going off in her pocket. Surprised, she pulled it out, and said, "Yeah, who's calling?"

"It's Yuna," came Yuna's voice. "We all just woke up, and we're not hurt or anything, but we're not sure where we are…"

"Stay where you are, Lulu and I will come looking for you."

"Is the fight over already?"

Aya was silent for a moment. "Yeah."

Yuna didn't reply. Aya and Lulu set out the way they had come through the cave. Before long, sitting a little ways down the passage, they found Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Ryuen, and Meena.

"How'd you guys get back here?" Lulu asked.

"It's likely she transported us," Ryuen said. "And I'm pretty sure she had a spell on all of us, because we woke up once she had died, I think."

"You're sure clued in," Meena commented. "Were you really even knocked out?"

"Yes," Ryuen said, scowling.

"We're… you know… sorry we couldn't really help," Rikku offered timidly.

"It's okay," Lulu said, smiling. "You're all still bloody, though, let's get you healed up!"

She and Aya took ethers, and then healed every one of their injured friends. When Aya was healing Ryuen, he said, "You used ultima, didn't you?"

Aya didn't reply.

"I can tell," Ryuen replied. "It's a hard spell to witness."

Aya slowly nodded. "It is. I was surprised."

"I'm sure mom is happy you survived," Ryuen said, smiling.

Aya's straight, somber face finally cracked into a smile. "Now that you mention it, I'm kind of glad I survived. I must just be lucky or something."

"No, I think you're just powerful," Ryuen said with a chuckle. "Thanks, by the way," he said, once Aya had finished healing him. "I'm really happy you're okay, too."

Aya couldn't remember ever really hugging her brother before, but at that moment, she did. "Thanks, Ryuen."

"I worry about you, though," he said. "So, just be more careful. You're only 16, after all." He ruffled her hair.

"I know it's messy already, but no need to make it worse," she whined of her nearly falling out pigtails.

Ryuen laughed. "Sorry. Habit, you know."

Aya kicked him, and moved on to heal Meena.

Once everyone was all patched up, they set off to find Wakka and Tidus. Since Aya knew her way around the cave, it wasn't that difficult. She wasn't quite sure how to find the jail area, but they found it without too much of a problem.

"Lu!" Wakka yelled, reaching through the bars. She grabbed his hand, and nearly started crying.

"I'm so happy you're alright," Lulu said, still fighting back tears.

Yuna had attempted to hug Tidus through the bars; it hadn't worked all that well. They rushed Aya to the door of the cell. She placed her hands over the lock and blew the door off its hinges. Yuna and Lulu rushed into the cell, flattening their respective guys with hugs and kisses.

Wakka and Tidus were perfectly fine, and didn't need any healing, so they all walked together out of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. Aya led the way, head held high, and not looking back on the place that had tortured everyone for so long.

It had tortured Kana. Her sister had died there, leading her on a never ending quest for revenge. It had torn two couples apart—Wakka and Lulu, and Yuna and Tidus. It had tortured Aya, even—being there, fighting, watching her friends and brother get hurt… and killing. She had a distinct feeling that none of them would be back to this place, ever, if they could help it.

Meena dashed to catch up with Aya. She walked next to her in silence for a moment. Aya was grateful Meena had noticed that something was bothering her—then again, Meena was probably Aya's best friend.

"Hey," Meena finally said after a moment. "Thanks for bringing me along… even though I didn't do much. It was fun."

Aya smiled a little. "Yeah… you're strong, Meena. You've worked hard."

"Yeah, I did work hard," she agreed. "But you! You impress everyone every day with your physical and mental strength."

Aya could feel a little color rising in her face. Ryuen called her a baby all the time, and she almost assumed that everyone else thought of her that way…

"So… what exactly happened?" Meena asked cautiously.

"Well… I beat her," Aya said, chuckling a little. "Lulu helped me. We cast ultima, and she died."

"Ultima, huh?" Meena said. "I'd sure have liked to see that!"

"No," Aya assured her, "you wouldn't."

Rikku radioed the airship, and before everyone knew it, they were back on board. Brother grew increasingly grumpy due to the presence of Tidus. Almost immediately when they had got back on the airship, Rikku and Paine had started the party.

The cabin had been decorated at lightning speed, and piles of food had been set out. Everyone was talking and having a great time, including Aya. Lulu eventually pulled her aside.

"How have you been holding up?" she asked her.

"Me? I'm fine…" Aya replied. "You must be great!"

Lulu smiled. "Well… yeah, I'm happy. But you seem sad. Is seeing that spell still bothering you?"

Aya shook her head. "Well… maybe a little bit." The real reason she was sad, however, was that she would soon be leaving the Gullwings. She was not looking forward to that at all... considering she at last felt like she belonged somewhere.

"That's why only old, wrinkled, really experienced mages know it," Lulu explained. "With the exception of you, me, and Kana. Though, I highly doubt I could have cast that on my own without severely injuring myself."

"When my mom was teaching me the prayer, I said the last line and then the stuffed animal that I happened to be looking at exploded," Aya said with a little laugh. "My mother told me I wasn't allowed any more practice on that spell."

"Did you listen?" Lulu asked.

"Absolutely not," Aya replied. "If I was ever in a life threatening situation, I figured it might be something that was good to know."

Lulu nodded. "It might. I was just making sure you were—"

"EXCUSE ME!" Yuna shouted over all of them. "Excuse me! Um, I've got an announcement to make!"

Everyone, confused, turned to face Yuna.

"Well," she began, "I've noticed that we have some… unique… visitors with us. In fact, they're pretty strong, and we've gotten to know them really well. And so, I had a talk with Buddy, and he said that this would work… what would you guys think if I told you that the Gullwings were thinking of… expanding?"

She cast Aya, Ryuen, and Meena knowing looks.

"Really!" Meena and Aya both exclaimed at the same time.

"Really," Yuna said. "Assuming all the other Gullwings are for it!"

Rikku squealed, and rushed over to give Aya and Meena hugs. Paine stared at Yuna for a moment. Her gaze flicked over to Meena for a moment, and then she nodded. The poor girl needed some direction, and she obviously wasn't going to get the right kind from Aya's soft brother.

"So, that means that you guys will stick around with us, go through some official training, and you'll be the newest branch of Gullwings!" Yuna said happily.

Aya smiled, and hugged Rikku again. She had a feeling that life was about to get a lot more interesting than it had been when she lived back in Luca.

THE END

* * *

YES, this is the end! Sequal available upon request, I suppose, otherwise I'm moving on to my next FFX-2 fic, which I've already started! It's a Rikku/Gippal, ofcourse XD It's called "Next Thursday", soo keep your eyes out for that! I just write Rikku-centric stories much better than anything else XD Anyway, thank you for reading! And for putting up with my slowness, and for reviewing, and all that.

Thanks again,

Lulala


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